TOKYO -- Students from across Japan convened here March 26 to present a list of over 20,000 signatures imploring Japan to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The members of the "high school students' peace seminar" group including those from the capital, Hiroshima and elsewhere, came with the message that Japan, as the only nation to have been struck by nuclear weapons in war, should move to seek the eradication of such weapons.

The group presented 22,465 signatures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district. The roughly 60 junior high and high school students from Tokyo and seven prefectures including Osaka, Hiroshima and Okinawa, as well as university students in the capital, began collecting signatures in 2021, and first submitted 13,642 of them in 2022. They have continued to collect signatures on the streets, at schools and online. This was their second submission of additional signatures.

After handing over a number of thick bundles of documents containing the signatures, the students gave their thoughts.

Kyoka Ebato, a 17-year-old first-year high school student from Tokyo, said, "I thought few high school students would speak up, but I was wrong. Young people have the power to speak up against what they think is wrong."

Honoka Suzuki, 18 and in the third year of high school in Hiroshima, pleaded, "I am concerned that even Japan does not understand the feelings of the hibakusha (victims of the nuclear attacks). Even though it may feel like peace is being maintained with nuclear deterrence and nuclear armament, it's not true peace."

Ryo Uehara, a 13-year-old in the first year of junior high school in Okinawa, emphasized, "A sense of crisis is growing in Okinawa as contingency drills have begun. Signing the petition is an expression by the people of the prefecture for their desire to oppose war and abolish nuclear weapons."

Jiro Hamasumi, 79-year-old assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, officially the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, added at the presentation meeting, "Peace is essential to fulfill young people's hopes and dreams. I hope the government will lead the world toward a world without nuclear weapons and war."

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said, referring to how the government did not participate as an observer at the recent Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, "Joining a conference on a treaty at odds with nuclear deterrence would send the wrong message about Japan's nuclear deterrence policy, and could hinder the assurance of peace and security."

After the signatures were delivered, 17-year-old second-year Tokyo high schooler Akito Yokomichi said, "The logic that peace is maintained because of the United States' nuclear umbrella is bankrupt. I am not convinced." Other attendees expressed disappointment, saying the ministry staffer did not fully or clearly answer their questions.

(Japanese original by Asako Takeuchi, Tokyo City News Department)