Dozens of progressive lawmakers in the United States and Japan are urging President Joe Biden to make a “sensible” shift and commit the U.S. to a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons “at any time or under any circumstances.”
The demand was also directed at Fumio Kishida the Japanese Prime Minister. a letterDated Friday.
The effort was led U.S. Rep. Pramila Jawapal (D-Wash.), U.S. senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as well as Masaharu Nakagawa (Progressive Caucus of Japan chair) and Diet House of Representatives member.
The group’s call comes as Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has escalated fears of atomic warfare, especially as Russian President Vladimir Putin has waved a “nuclear saber” with recent declarations.
Biden last month signed off on his administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, a policy which, to the disappointmentof nonproliferation supporters, he has reneged on his 2020 campaign promise to no-first-use. According to U.S. officials the NPR leaves open the possibility of nuclear weapons being used in response to nonnuclear warfare.
But, the lawmakers stressed in their letter, “it is never too late to commit to a no-first-use policy.”
Addressing the “nuclear umbrella” security alliance between the two nations, the letter states: “A no-first-use policy would not weaken the U.S. ability to protect Japan and itself from a nuclear attack. This protection is based not on the ability of the U.S. to strike first, but on the promise U.S. nuke retaliation. In fact, a no-first-use policy would increase protection against a nuclear attack by reducing doubt, miscalculation, and the possibility of an accidental nuclear launch.”
Additionally, “a U.S. declaration stating that it would never start a nuclear war, supported by Japan, would breathe new life into international efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate the danger of nuclear war,” the lawmakers assert. “This is especially important at a time when tensions between the nuclear-weapons-possessing states, especially between the United States and China, are increasing.”
As The Associated Press reported Saturday, Russia’s attack on Ukraine has added new fears of a nuclear exchange.
“For U.S. officials and world leaders, discussions of how to respond to a limited nuclear attack are no longer theoretical,” AP reported.
“One overarching concern is that by casting some nuclear weapons as tactical weapons to be used in battle, Russia could break the nearly eight-decade global taboo against using a nuclear weapon against another country.” Yet, AP added, “even comparatively small tactical nuclear weapons approach the strength of the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II.”
The Japanese and American leaders demanded the U.S. leaders a week after the 16 Nobel Peace Prize winners. releasedOpen letter calling for an immediate halt to the attack on Ukraine and the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons
“The time to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons is now. It is the only way to guarantee that the inhabitants of the planet will be safe from this existential threat,” they wrote.
“It is either the end of nuclear weapons,” they said, “or the end of us.”
