“It’s time to stop nuclear weapons. I have been in the U.S. three times before on the same mission — to stop an evil weapon. This is my own personal opinion and not that of any group I belong to. President Bush and the [U.S.] government are trying to include nuclear weapons as an option and should be stopped. … I want to ask the American people: please don’t elect another president like Bush.”
— Shunsaburo Tanabe, a hibakusha (survivor of the atomic bombing)
“American nuclear weapons are deployed in the Netherlands, and Dutch pilots of the air force train to use those weapons on Netherlands planes. In times of war, the Netherlands becomes a nuclear state, like other countries of the NATO alliance. From Holland I’m here to tell you we say ‘no’ to Holland and the NATO nuclear weapons; we say that nuclear weapons must be removed from Dutch soil and that NATO must drop its nuclear weapons policy.”
— A participant from the Netherlands
“On the 6th of August, 60 years ago, I was a college student, 20 years old. When the A-bomb was dropped, I was near the Hiroshima City Hall, about 1 kilometer from where the bomb was dropped, ground zero. I saw so many injured and killed, covered in blood, and burned. It was Hell on earth. I really believe Hiroshima was dead at the time. One week later, I fell unconscious. For 40 days I was unconscious, so I didn’t know when the war ended.”
— A hibakusha
“On 9/11 of 2001 my husband was killed. On that day I felt like I was handed a responsibility that I could not put down and have not been able to put down since. … There are very few things that I know to be true in this world, and one of them is that hatred and violence breeds hatred and violence.”
— Andrea LeBlanc, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
“We are working with almost 24 mayors, and we continue to campaign, not only with signatures but also by preparing initiatives in Portugal. Next week we are going to join with Spanish organizations to march against a huge U.S. military base in the south of Spain. We believe nuclear exist weapons in that base. … We believe the U.S. has given up nonproliferation treaty also. This is a very bad thing, but we believe that the United States is building the world into a huge military enclave including nuclear weapons.”
— Sandra Bantica, Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation
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