PTBT, NPT, CTBT And Its Effects On South Asian
Region
Introduction
1. The period since 1945, when the first atomic bomb
was exploded is popularly known as "Nuclear Age”. This
period witnessed the discovery of the new sources of
physical power by the Scientists and Engineers and is
characterised by the production of a set of terrifying
weapons of mass destruction for use against the
adversaries.
2. It is generally held that the nuclear age has brought a
radical change in international affairs and has enlarged
the quantity of power. Eversince the use of atom bomb in
1945 the peace loving nations of the world have been
making efforts in different shapes to control the nuclear
arms race. These efforts proved fruitless as the inhabitants
of this world witnessed 2045 nuclear explosions in 51
years including USA, Russia, UK, France, China and
India.It meant a nuclear bomb exploded after every 9
days.
Historical Background (From PTBT, NPT To CTBT)
3. Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT). USA, USSR, UK
signed PTBT in Aug 1963,also known as the Treaty
Banning Nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer
space and underwater. The treaty did not ban the countries
for underground explosions unless they caused radioactive
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debris. This treaty came into force in 10 Oct, 1963.The
founding members expected that ultimately this treaty
would lead to complete elimination of nuclear weapons
tests. By Jan 1987 the number of signatory states had risen
to 116.But covertly this treaty was designed to ensure
permanent domination position of the existing nuclear
powers. The treaty was also defective, as it did not make a
provision for control through posts, spot inspection or
international bodies. It made no bid to reduce the nuclear
stockpiles and merely prohibited those tests, which could
be detected. However China, France and Pakistan opposed
such treaty, which did not insist on the destruction of
existing nuclear stockpiles of USA, and USSR.It has been
estimated that between Aug 1963 and Dec 1986 USSR
conducted 412 tests. USA conducted 484 tests. All these
tests were conducted underground. Likewise the other
nuclear powers have also persisted with nuclear
explosions. Thus UK made 17 nuclear explosions
(underground) during this period. France made 91
underground and 41 atmospheric explosions while China
made 7 underground and 22 atmospheric nuclear
explosions.
4. It is evident from the above that the main intention of
the two superpowers has been to control the spread of
nuclear weapons as well as nuclear technology rather than
to effect nuclear disarmament. This is further borne by the
fact that despite repeated resolutions of the UN general
4
assembly calling for a comprehensive test ban, the
nuclear states have continued underground tests. The nonnuclear countries have argued that unless the nuclear
powers stop their vertical proliferation, it would not be
possible to prevent the horizontal proliferation of nuclear
weapons.
5. In 1985-86 the UN general assembly recommended
the parties of PTBT to convert it through an amendment
into a comprehensive treaty, but judging by the attitude of
the powers on the stoppage of nuclear weapons test unless
they have attained the capability of laboratory testing
techniques.
6. NonProliferationTreaty (NPT).
The term "Non
Proliferation" came into surface, around 1965. Initially it
was used to cover the concept of dissemination (spread of
nuclear weapons by the nuclear powers) and acquisition
(manufacture or otherwise obtaining of nuclear weapons
by non-nuclear powers). However in course of time it also
included further development accumulation and
development of nuclear weapons by the nuclear powers.
5
7. As noted above, the PTBT of 1963 was designed by
the superpowers to retain their monopoly in nuclear
technology and to ensure their dominant position and they
were certainly not interested in CTBT and nuclear
disarmament. In June 1965 the Disarmament Commission
of UN adopted a resolution and called upon the Eighteen
Nations Disarmament Conference (ENDC) to meet and
accord special priority to the consideration of the question
of a treaty or convention to prevent the proliferation of
nuclear weapons. On 17th Aug 1965 USA and USSR
submitted a draft treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear
weapons. The General Assembly ultimately adopted the
treaty on 12th June 1968 by 95 to 4 votes with 21
abstentions.
8. The treaty of Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapon
was simultaneously signed at London, Moscow and
Washington on 1st July, 1968 and actually came into
force on 5th March 1970.In all 136 states signed this
treaty by 1 Jan, 1987. According to NPT both Pakistan
and India can not be declared as nuclear state, according
to para 3rd of article 9 all those states that tested their
nuclear capability before Jan 1967 were known or
declared nuclear states, it included USA, UK, Russia,
France and China. Treaty contained 11 articles and an
elaborate preamble.
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9. Reaction to treaty.
It produced a mixed
reaction. Pakistan along with India, Israel, Egypt, South
Africa, Spain, Argentina, Brazil etc. refused to ratify the
NPT.Even China, France two nuclear powers refused to
sign calling it discriminatory. The NPR of 1968 also
accepted the inalienable right of all parties to the treaty to
develop, research production and use of nuclear energy for
peaceful purpose with out discrimination.
10. What is CTBT ? It envisages complete cessation of
all nuclear testing. Unlike the NPT, the CTBT does not
distinguish between and group of countries and bans all
future test explosions for nuclear weapons states and nonnuclear weapons states. This goal was reiterated in the
statement of "Principle and objects of Nuclear NonProliferation and Disarmament" adopted at the NPT
conference.
11. CTBT is a brainchild of USA and other nuclear states
to arrange full implementation of nuclear Non
Proliferation Treaty. It calls for imposing total ban on
conducting any nuclear test by any new entrant in the
exclusive club, irrespective of the level of threshold
already obtained by any United Nations Organization
member. Extensive political and diplomatic efforts were
made during 1996 at Geneva and New York to get the
treaty ratified unanimously by member states through
voluntary commitment. But
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these efforts did not succeed. The text of CTBT calls for:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Ban on all types of nuclear tests including
underground tests.
The nuclear programs of non nuclear weapons
states, owing to lack of capability to conduct
computer simulation and laboratory experiments
and other non-explosive tests, should be frozen at
their current levels.
Complete disarmament of nuclear weapons by
the declared five states at some later stage.
Exchange of information between the threshold
states and the declared states and inspection of
nuclear plants by international observers.
Main Objectives of the Permanent Security Council
Members
12. The main objectives are as follows: -
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a.
b.
c.
d.
Control and reduction of weapon of mass
destruction.
Achieved unfinished agenda of Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty.
Freeze nuclear capability of nuclear threshold
states.
Deny testing facility to any new nuclear aspirant
state.
Nuclear Proliferation in South Asian
13. With the Pokharan explosion and development of
Kahuta project nuclear factor has become a part of the
South Asian Security threat. India's weapon oriented
programs and Pakistan's peaceful nuclear response have
caused apprehensions that nuclear programs of these
traditional rivals would eventually disturb the world
peace. Fears have also appeared on the Euro-American
horizon about the nature of Pakistan's nuclear programs.
The Islamic Bomb allegedly being fabricated by Pakistan
with the financial assistance of some Arab countries has
disturbed the peace of mind of Christians, Jews and
Hindus. In view of any potential threat of Islamic
fundamentalism to the so called emerging "New world
order", the US and its western allies have been denying
the nuclear technology to Pakistan on the pretext that
nuclear weapons in the hands of such traditional rivals
like India and Pakistan would not be in the interest of
9
world peace. This policy is based on dishonesty and
discrimination too. India was allowed to find a soft corner
in Jewish lobby in the America in the pretext of Chinese
nuclear threat. Previously it was the communist threat
which served as an excuse and now the threat of Islamic
fundamentalism is being used by India as an excuse
which is more appealing to Christian and Jewish lobby.
14. India started its nuclear programs with the assistance
of France, USA, UK, Canada and the former Soviet
Union. It made a rapid progress in this field. At last India
exploded its first nuclear device in 1974.Since then India
has been continuously developing its nuclear capability.
In view of Indian foreign policy aims, Pakistan perceived
a serious threat to its security and decided not to be
intimated by Indian nuclear blackmail. Thus Pakistan
embarked upon its peaceful nuclear program. The USA
and the Western world that did not take any serious notice
of Indian nuclear explosion became restless and have
been showing grave concern about the potentials and
programs of Kahuta Project.
15. Pakistan’s stance regarding the on going nuclear
arms race in the region is very clear and based on a very
sound rational. Pakistan has also proposed to control the
nuclear proliferation in South Asia by adopting a just
policy equally binding for India and Pakistan. The world
has appreciated Pakistan's sincere efforts but India has not
responded positively. However the fate of the proposal
10
regarding the extension of the Pressler amendment to
India has given clear indication that USA is not willing to
abandon its policy of discrimination with regard to
nuclear issue in South Asia.
The Genesis of Nuclear Program in the Region
16. India’s foremost scientist Dr. Homi Bhaba on whose
recommendations the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research was established in 1945 took the first step
towards the atomic program in South Asia. ON 15 Aug
1948 the Indian Government set up the Atomic Energy
Commission. Progress was slow at first because much
prep work had to be done, including the laying of an
infrastructure and the training abroad of nuclear scientists
and engineers. India was also able to install its first
nuclear reactor at Trombay (near Bombay), which did
Pundit Lal Nehru inaugurate in 1957. Pundit Nehru
declared that India would never use nuclear energy for
evil purposes whatever might be the circumstances.
17. The progress continued under Nehru and then his
daughter Indira Gandhi. The Western countries and US
gave India technical assistance in nuclear reactors. The
Canadians build a nuclear research reactor named "Cirrus
" at Trombay in 1960. The Americans build two reactors
at Tarapur, Tarapur--Tarapur-II, and I which went critical
in 1969 and were inaugurated by Indira Gandhi. India had
11
already set up a reprocessing plant in 1964 to feed its
research reactors. Moreover, The Russians also lent a
helping hand by providing India with heavy water and
related technology.
The First Nuclear Explosion In The Region
18. In 1966, Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of
India, with her accession to power the entire complexion
of the Indian nuclear program changed. It was no longer a
matter of scientific research or a quest for nuclear energy
for peaceful purposes as originally claimed by Nehru and
Shastri. Nuclear power now became an instrument of
power politics to gratify those who had been dreaming of
reviving the Hindu Empire of the past. Over the past
several years the Indians have been stealing Plutonium
from the apparently safeguarded Canadian reactor and
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had accumulated enough to carry out an explosion of
respectable magnitude. When they have got enough of it
to put together a critical mass, they exploded it at
Pokharan in the Rajistan desert in May 1947 It was only
about 10 kilotons in terms of fissionable material, but the
political and emotional impact of the explosion was
measurable in megatons. The Indians went wild with joy.
The successful nuclear explosion gave them confidence,
assurance and pride. It made them think of themselves the
sixth nuclear power of the world. Mrs. Gandhi was hailed
by the masses as a great leader. She became a Devi to the
Indians of whom they could justly be proud.
The Second Proposed Nuclear Explosion
19. India went for 2nd nuclear explosion in 1996 at
Pokharan (Rajistan) but could not do so due to the
opposition by G-7, USA and European Union. Pakistan
also declared to embark upon the war oriented nuclear
program instead of peaceful orientation, if India resorted
to second nuclear explosion. Few factors are listed below
which forced India to go for second nuclear explosion: a.
b.
c.
Domestic compulsion due to congress BJP
Political rifts.
Permanent seat in the UN security council.
To judge / test the important features of the bomb
and develop safety procedures for weapons.
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d.
e.
f.
To carry out thermonuclear test at Bhaba Atomic
Energy center.
To reach to a secret understanding with western
countries and US.
Pakistan-China secret collaboration in transfer of
missile technology, sale of ring magnets and
construction of missile factory near Rawalpindi.
Pakistan's
Objects
Nuclear
Programme.Its
Imperatives
and
2o. While India was moving ahead in nuclear
technology, Pakistan was at a stand still on this road.
Pakistan was too involved in its internal political
problems, which hardly allowed the country's borders to
focus their attention on more pressing national interests. It
was not until the early sixties that country turned
seriously to face nuclear realities. The US helped to
install a small
Research reactor-PINSTECH, near Rawalpindi.Another
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small nuclear power reactor KANUPP was installed at
Karachi with the help of Canada.It was after the Pokharan
explosion by India that Pakistan turned more seriously to
nuclear energy. It planned a nuclear power plant at
Chashma on the Indus river, which would provide a 600
MV of electricity and meet the sizeable proportion of
national energy requirement. Pakistan signed a contract
with France for the acquisition of a reprocessing plant to
be installed at Chashma as a part of power generating
system. Everything was set and the winds promised
smooth sailing. But soon our dreams of energy selfsufficiency were shattered when France regretted to
provide reprocessing plant under USA pressure and
Chashma project consequently came to a stand still.
21. The west was singling out Pakistan for
discriminatory treatment without paying any attention to
India, South Africa and Israel. The west demanded of
Pakistan's submission to the NPT and to safeguards
without imposing these conditions on others. When
Pakistan protested that it was prepared to fulfil all the
conditions, which were imposed on everybody else, its
protest fell on deaf ears? Canadians had out off fuel
supplies from KANUPP and now US blocked progress on
the Chashma project. All this led to a clear-cut decision
by Pakistan that it would not depend on the tender
mercies of the west. Pakistan would stand on its own feet,
generate its nuclear energy by its own efforts, and without
15
asking anyone else for help. It would do so in a quicker
and cheaper way, in other words take a short cut that is
uranium enrichment.
The Kahuta Project
22. The project rose from the ashes of Chashma to assert
the national will and determination to have what the nation
needed. Within a few years, un-aided by anybody,
Pakistan had achieved uranium enrichment capability. It
was away ahead of India in uranium enrichment, as India
was ahead in the field of reprocessing. It was really
surprising the world that a country which could not make
sewing needles or even ordinary durable metalled roads
was embarking on one of the latest and most difficult
technologies. Only seven countries in the world (USA,
UK, RUSSIA, FRANCE, CHINA, GERMANY and
HOLLAND) possessed this technology. “It is a Herculean
task and an ultracentrifuge is undoubtedly a mechanical
miracle. Naturally, the western world was fully aware of
these problems and was sure that an underdeveloped
country like Pakistan could never master this technology
we proved otherwise, “said Dr. A. Q Khan in his speech at
an award ceremony in Lahore in Sept, 1990 and published
in Frontier post, Peshawar, 12 Sep, 1990.
23. The Pakistan enrichment experience has demonstrated
that it a nation is sincere and determined to achieve a
16
certain goal she would do it and will do so much sooner
than anticipated. Others unattainable considered what we
achieved in five years at a much lower cost by us in 50
years.
Imperatives and Objectives
24. Pakistan being a developing country urgently needs
nuclear energy to meet its basic requirements for country's
industrial growth and economic development. According
to a nuclear study conducted by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) Pakistan would need 20 nuclear
power plants to meet her power needs by the year 2000.
On 23 rd Sept 1982, Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission Dr. Munir Ahmed Khan addressed the 26 Th.
annual session of the IAEA General Conference at Vienna.
He said that the "use of nuclear energy in Pakistan is
imperative to meet the growing demands of power in the
country”. The importance of nuclear energy for a
17
developing country like Pakistan is also greater because
the power generated by nuclear reactors is 33 % cheaper
than the power by ordinary measures. It is, therefore
indispensable for Pakistan to continue its nuclear program
for peaceful purposes and to achieve the obj of
accelerating her economy.
25. Pakistan’s nuclear break through at Kahuta caused
wide spread unrest in India. Volumes are written about
our nuclear programme which some described as the
Islamic bomb and others as Pakistani bomb. The hard line
Press in India, supported and instigated by the
government, maintained a steady flow of propaganda to
show that Pakistan was rapidly approaching the nuclear
weapon stage, if it had not reached already, and that it
was either about to detonate a nuclear device or would
acquire an Israeli –like capability of having bombs, which
only needed to have their wires connected. An interesting
scenario used by this propaganda lobby was that Pakistan
wove soon have a nuclear bomb, and when that happened
Pakistan would start a war by invading Jammu and
Kashmir. The vocal group of nuclear hawks in India,
therefore, suggested that India must hurry up and acquire
a nuclear weapons capability in preparation for the day
when Pakistan would put this perfidious plan into
operation.
26. Far from securing Pakistan ‘s nuclear efforts as they
18
had done in the past, the Americans, the Russians and the
Western countries denounced Pakistan’s nuclear
intentions. Every now and then they would announce that
Pakistan was about to explode a nuclear device. There
were even suggestions in the American media of a
possible air strike by India at Kahuta to take out the
nuclear plant as the Israeli had done with the Qsiris
reactor in Iraq, and not surprisingly the Indian high
command even studied the proposals. The proposal was
given up not only because of natural and military
defences of Kahuta, which was one important factor, but
also because Trombay and Tarapur, among others, were
well within the striking range of the Pakistan Air Force.
Moreover, many Indians feared that Pakistanis were mad
enough to launch on way mission.
27. On the other side, the Jewish lobby in the West
which more or less controls the Americans media and
exercises considerable influence over the media of
Western Europe, orchestrated a campaign designed to
give the image of rising nuclear peril from Pakistan which
would have a devastating effects on the peace of the
world. The bomb allegedly being fabricated by Pakistan
19
was happily flaunted as the Islamic Bomb. This created a
disturbing picture in the minds of the Christians, and later
also of the Hindus, of a great nuclear on -slaught to be
launched by Islamic fundamentalists against the rest of
the world with obvious shattering results. The Indians
also tried to involve USA in its campaign against Pakistan
by putting pressure on the Americans to do something
about Islamic Bomb. The USA came down heavily on
Pakistan. They first tried threats, then sent warnings and
finally stopped aid. When Pakistan refused to be
intimated, the US turned to France to break the contract
and cancel the deal for the supply of the reprocessing
plant which they did after some resistance, the Canadians
had already cut off fuel supplies for KANUPP at Karachi
which they themselves had installed for us, and they did
so because the Indians had stolen Plutonium from a
Canadian build reactor for Pokharan explosion. Later,
USA also blocked progress on the Chashma project. In
this way, India and the West showed their reaction to
Pakistan’s nuclear programme. It is the fourth time that
the USA has again stopped its aid to Pakistan under
Pressler Amendment due to non-certification from US
President about Pakistan’s
Nuclear programme. Previously, in 1989, the certification
followed after assurances about Pakistan’s nuclear
20
programme given by the then PM of Pakistan.
Indian Present Position Towards CTBT
28. India traditionally has been one of the strong
proponent of CTBT but has recently taken a turn in
policy, based on afresh review of current geopolitical
environment of the world. India has already carried out
one underground test. Her leadership sees CTBT against
her political aspirations. Some of the reasons given are: a. India will not be able to enjoy equal status with
China and other nuclear states.
b. Treaty forbids any new testing while it does not
lay down a timetable for destruction of existing
stockpiles of nuclear states.
c. India will never achieve a status in world
policies based on her size and population.
d. She may be asked/ forced to role back her
nuclear programme and will have to open the
nuclear facilities for international inspection.
e. The treaty should be improved as its present text
has loopholes, permitting existing nuclear states
to improve the technology and quality of their
weapons through laboratory tests.
f. Though India does not wish to block the treaty,
She will not sign it unless a clear timetable is
included for destruction of all nuclear weapons
21
by nuclear states.
29. Immediate and Long term Effects of Indian Stance.
a. The treaty has been effectively blocked for the
time being.
b. Nuclear power states have been brought on
weaker political stand.
c. All 44 members holding Nuclear power stations
have not yet signed the proposed treaty.
d. India has achieved moral, political and ethical
ascendancy over others.
e. India may be able to bargain on the issue and get
permanent Security Council Seat under give and
take arrangement.
f. Nuclear power states may be morally compelled
to shed away some or all of their stockpiles.
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g.
h.
Pakistan and India will be able to get sufficient
time to complete their research work and
requisite advancement of their programmes.
Nuclear race between India and Pakistan shall
continue with its security and economic
implications.
30. Indian proposes to make the CTBT a genuine step
towards disarmament as against the US and its allies who
are determined to turn it into an instrument of nonproliferation rather than disarmament. India has resolved
to support a truly / comprehensive treaty with no hidden
agenda. This stance of India has left her in state of
isolation as 173 nations including over 100 non—aligned
states have abjured their nuclear option, legitimising it in
the hands of the five nuclear weapons states. India has
vetoed the deliberations at Geneva and much to the
annoyance of Western powers, she has also refused to
sponsor the UN resolution during its annual session of
1996.
Pakistan’s Stand On Nuclear Proliferation In South Asia
31. The official stand of Pakistan regarding the nuclear
issue is very clear and based on principles. Time and
again the national leaders have solemnly declared that
Pakistan ‘s nuclear programme is peaceful and dedicated
solely for economic, technical and social development
23
and bringing the benefits of peaceful applications of
nuclear energy to its 100 million people. Moreover
Pakistan is ready to subscribe to any non-—proliferation
arrangements in our region which is non-—
discriminatory. Pakistan strongly supports the idea of
solving the problems of proliferation on nuclear weapons
through constructive political dialogue, which addresses
the security and development concerns of the countries
involved. In this connection, in late 1985, The late
President Zia-ul -Haq, went so far as to make the
following proposals to India on the floor of the UN: --
a.
b.
c.
d.
To declare South Asia a nuclear Free Zone
To sign the NPT simultaneously.
To agree to an international inspection team to
visit and inspect each and every nuclear facility
in each of the two countries , and
To renounce mutually the use of nuclear
weapons.
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32. Now most recently the PM of Pakistan has given
seven proposals for non-—proliferation in South Asia
These proposals also include some points of the previous
proposals given by Zia—ul—Haq. Following are the
proposals: -a. Establishment of a nuclear weapons Free Zone
in South Asia.
b. Pakistan and India should issue a joint
declaration renouncing the acquisition of nuclear
weapons.
c. An agreement with India on a system of bilateral
inspection of all
Nuclear facilities on reciprocal basis.
d. Simultaneous acceptance of IAEA safeguards by
Pakistan and India on
Nuclear facilities.
e. Signing of NPT by India and Pakistan
simultaneously
f. Conclusion of a bilateral or regional nuclear test
ban treaty.
g. Convening of a conference on nuclear nonproliferation in South Asia
under the auspices of the UN with the
participation of regional and
other interested states.
25
33. Regarding the last proposal the PM Nawaz Sharif
proposed convening of the five-nation conference to
resolve the issue of nuclear proliferation in the region.
According to the proposal the USA, Russia and China to
consult and meet with India and Pakistan to discuss and
resolve the issue of nuclear proliferation in South Asia.
The aim of the meeting should be to arrive at an
agreement for keeping this region free of nuclear
weapons on the basis of proposals already made or new
ideas that may engage .The PM also reminded that the
nuclear non proliferation regime to be negotiated during
the proposed multilateral consultations should be
equitable and non discriminating.
Pakistan ‘s View About Pressler Amendment.
34. Pakistan has invariably made it clear that it regards
the Pressler Law as discriminatory and inequitable in its
application, since it singles out and actually name one
country, Pakistan. Moreover, it seeks to punish the
country while letting off the hook other countries like
India, Israel and South Africa, which have nuclear
programmes exceeding Pakistan’s. Following is the text
of the Pressler Amendment: --
26
“ No assistance shall be furnished to PAKISTAN and
no military equipment or technology shall be sold or
transferred to Pakistan pursuant to the authorities
contained in this Act or any other Act unless the
President shall have certified in writing to the
chairman of the committee of Foreign Relations of
the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives during the year in which assistance
to be furnished or military equipment or technology
is to be sold or transferred, that Pakistan does not
posses a nuclear explosive device,and that the
proposed US assistance programme will reduce
significantly the risk that Pakistan will posses a
nuclear device. “
USA Objectives in South Asian Regions
35. Non - Proliferation. A major goal of USA strategic
and foreign policy. CTBT have been taken up as a
crusade by US Clinton administration for establishment
of New World Order (NWO). A handful of nuclear
weapons states by virtue of their existing nuclear
potentials would become the arbitrators in all-global
disputes. Russia still in a shambles and China embroiled
27
in its domestic matters, uncertain about its hydro testing
facilities it would be Pan American on large scale.
36. US Strategic Objectives. As a result of advancement
in computer simulation and the ability to conduct micro
nuclear explosions in the laboratories USA would be able
to develop new nuclear weapons without underground
testing thus the treaty would in no way be a constraint to
USA strategic objectives.
37. Threshed States. India, Pakistan, Israel and South
Africa would be totally retrained from joining the nuclear
club and these countries making serious efforts to acquire
nuclear technology would also be totally prohibited.
USA Approach Towards CTBT.
38. USA is using all its tested tools, which were also
used during the NPT. It includes demarches, political
pressure, cajoling and coercing. Its eagerness to conclude
an unconditional CTBT was hampered by France. She
carried out series of nuclear tests in the Pacific, which
proved Chirac’s bid to win the race of political supremacy
in the west. China having agreed in principal to abide by
the CTBT (with some amendments to its text) has
conducted two nuclear tests and fired three medium and
short range missiles with plans to conduct more before
Sep, 1996.
28
Pakistan, s Approach Towards CTBT
39. Pakistan finds herself in a political and military
dilemma. Where nuclear power status provides national
security, strong stance on Kashmir and creditability on
regional and world scene, any voluntary effort to agree on
becoming the signatory of treaty will be suicidal in every
sense of the word. Pakistan had initially linked her
signature with the
signing of India, which had closed all options for
Pakistan after the fateful decision by India that her stance
had been modified in the rejoined contest of security and
peace.
Pakistan has yet to develop her foreign policy objectives
towards CTBT, keeping her
security aspects in view. Pakistan and India’s view
converge on the verification statutes, involving on site
29
inspection. Pakistan’s principle position is that it would
not sign the CTBT unless India does so. But if secret
understanding is reached between India and USA then
what approach Pakistan will adopt? Then instead of
India, Pakistan will be singled out.
Policy Options with Pakistan
40. Following are the policy options available with
Pakistan: a. Pakistan Govt should hold a referendum on this
dire security issue to win moral ground for
national stance.
b. Pakistan should link the signing of treaty with
the following: (1) When the Kashmir issue is resolved
underUnited Nation resolution.
(2) When India agrees to reduce the
conventional weapon inventory to a certain
level.
(3) When abolition of nuclear weapons is
finally undertaken by all
nuclear power states.
Conclusion.
41. After seeing all the facts it is clear that to keep
Pakistan without Nuclear weapons USA has tried all her
30
options. She is still trying harder to do more in this
regard. God has given us this nuclear power as a gift.
Now only we require is stability in our political system
and high level of patriotic feelings towards our
motherland. Otherwise we know that without political
stability we will loose our political independence, which
is indeed very dear to all of us.
(NIA DIARY)
1968
10Sep1996
NPT that emerged with the efforts of
USA, USSR, UK, France and China is now
in Aug 1998 is signed by 186 countries.
Australian resolution for CTBT was
31
presented at UNGA & adopted by 156 states
including Pakistan. India, Libya and Bhutan
voted against the resolution.
04Apr1998
Nuclear weapons states spend $ 80
million every hour to maintain
the capability
08 March 2016
44 countries including 4 threshold
states i.e. Pakistan, India, Israel and North
Korea are required to ratify the CTBT to
enforce it. By now 149 states have signed
the treaty.
08 March 2016
since 1945
USA conducted highest Nuclear explosions
---- 1032
France --- 210
UK --- 45
China --- 47
Russia
India --- 6
Pakistan --- 6
08 March 2016
PTBT --- Partial Test Ban Treaty
NPT --- Non-proliferation Treaty
CTBT --- Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
32
MTCR --- Missile Technology Control
Regime
FMCT --- Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty
MCRT – Missile Control Regime Treaty
21Jul1998
321 monitoring stations
established world-wide under CTBT
MAJOR
(ABDUL QUDDUS
will
be
QURESHI)
N I A
DEPT
33
NOT
FOR
PRINTING
This 1994 article from National Geographic discusses the
accident that occurred in 1986 at the nuclear power plant
in Chernobyl’, Ukraine, when it was still part of the
Soviet Union. The effects of the accident were major and
were noticed in areas far removed from Ukraine.
Spellings in the article may reflect conventions different
from those used in Encarta.
Living With the Monster
CHERNOBYL
By Mike Edwards
Near the end of a half-mile-long hallway connecting the
four reactors of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,
graph bars and squiggles flash on a monitor.
Only a few yards away rises the concrete-and-steel
sarcophagus sheathing the remains of reactor No. 4,
which blew up on April 26, 1986. An estimated 180 tons
of uranium fuel remains in the rubble, scattered or fused
34
with melted concrete and steel. Ten tons of radioactive
dust coats everything.
Sensors relay information from the debris: neutron
activity, radiation, temperature. In the monitoring room
the situation report appears on the screen in traffic-signal
colors. As I watched, the display was green. If the debris
warms up, the monitor shows orange. “If all the indicators
turn red, it's dangerous,” shift chief Anatoly Tasenko said.
“It happens sometimes.” He added this nonchalantly,
wanting me to know he's a pro.
At condition red, engineers turn on sprinklers, spraying a
boron solution that reduces neutron activity and thus the
release of radiation. So far, it works.
In fact, Western as well as Ukrainian scientists believe the
rubble probably can't reach a critical state—can't explode.
But no one knows for sure what's going on within the
ruins of the worst nuclear accident in history.
A new study suggests that the explosion threw out 100
million curies of dangerous radionuclides, such as cesium
137—twice as much as previous estimates. The World
Health Organization reckons that 4.9 million people in
Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were affected. But the
consequences, though obviously tragic in some aspects,
remain unclear.
35
What is clear at Chornobyl, monitor Tasenko's
nonchalance notwithstanding, is that the monster is far
from tamed.
One major concern of the engineers and physicists
watching No. 4 is the sarcophagus itself. Hastily erected
after the accident, the 24-story-high shell is leaky and
structurally unsound; conceivably it could topple in an
earthquake or extreme winds. The reactor building walls,
explosion damaged, are unstable too. And the 2,000-ton
reactor lid leans on rubble. “If it fell, it could shake
everything loose,” said physicist Vadim Hrischenko.
In particular, it would shake loose the radioactive dust,
which is increasing as the rubble breaks down. A violent
upheaval would spread the dust over the countryside—
though not so widely as the initial accident, which also
contaminated parts of Western Europe.
36
Finally, experts know that still-working reactors Nos. 1
and 3 are unsafe. No. 2 was shut down after a fire in
1991; its companions continue to run because Ukraine's
energy shortage is so dire.
The Chernobyl (in Russian, Chernobyl) power complex,
65 miles northwest of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, is
ground zero in a fenced 40-mile-wide circle. Cleared of
its 116,000 residents, it is called the Zone of
Estrangement.
My first look inside the zone was upon a landscape that
fit the dolorous name. Barn doors hung open and rampant
birches grew in flower beds once splashed with
hollyhocks. But a few miles farther inside, the zone
seemed not so estranged. Despite low-level radiation the
800-year-old city of Chernobyl lives. Its 50,000
inhabitants were evacuated, but in their place have arrived
about 6,000 people —guards, drivers, safety technicians,
and enough miscellaneous bureaucrats to administer a
city of Chernobyl’s original size.
Featherbedding, a familiar Soviet labor practice, also
prevails at the power station, where engineers admit that
the workforce—5,600—is twice as large as needed.
Some workers relish zone jobs because the tasks are
challenging, and some, surely, for the recklessness of it
37
all. I put my driver, Sasha, in the latter category when he
told me, “I've got boar steaks in my refrigerator.” To dine
on Chernobyl pig is to dine on cesium and other
radionuclides that concentrate at the top of the food chain.
But most people work here because, as one woman said,
“We've got to work somewhere.” In economically
crippled Ukraine the choices are few.
The bloated payrolls are one more burden for the
Ukrainian government, already pressed by Chernobylrelated expenses such as health care for victims and early
retirement pensions for the “liquidators,” the hundreds of
thousands who cleaned up and raised No. 4's shelter. In
all, Chernobyl’s aftermath consumes 15 percent of
Ukraine's budget.
Beyond Chernobyl city, which is nine miles from ground
zero, I passed through a checkpoint with changing rooms.
Workers issued me a gauze mask that would filter
radioactive particles, plus shoes, pants, jacket, and gloves,
so that my own clothes wouldn't take contamination
home.
38
Soon I stood 300 yards from the sarcophagus, listening to
the agitated buzz of my radiation meter. If I stayed about
two months, I'd receive the five rem of radiation
permitted yearly for an U. S. nuclear worker. Many
Chernobyl workers have received far more; to hold down
the cumulative dose, most work only two weeks in a
month.
The sarcophagus is the highest structure on this flat
landscape, a sore thumb rising gunmetal gray at one end
of the long concrete building that houses reactors and
turbines. Perhaps it stands out, too, because the landscape
has been thoroughly scalped. Cleanup workers not only
trucked away contaminated soil for burial in some 800
sites around the zone but even knocked down and interred
nearby pine forests killed by radiation.
I came upon a reminder of the desperate cleanup effort—
a motor pool posted off-limits with red-and-yellow
radiation signs. Armored personnel carriers bore slabs of
lead that had helped protect their passengers. From tanks
poked not cannon but cranes for lifting “hot” debris.
Thousands of tons of such equipment still await burial,
one more task in an onerous chain reaction triggered by
the accident.
39
In the power station I was admitted to the control room of
reactor No. 3, where white-smocked engineers watched a
wall of gauges. It is virtually identical to the control room
of No. 4, where other operators triggered the 1986
disaster while reducing reactor power.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, exonerating truths
emerged. The graphite-core reactor had, as suspected,
serious design flaws. And manuals made no mention of
its ironic instability at low power.
Now the rules prohibit operators from dipping below onequarter power. Some safety improvements have been
made—but not enough, contend Western experts, who to
no avail have recommended backup water systems for
cooling and such fire-protection measures as steel doors.
“It's ridiculous that the reactors are still operating,”
Valentin Kupniy, deputy zone administrator,
acknowledged. His hands are tied on that; it's a decision
for the Ukrainian government, which last spring
announced its determination to shut down Chernobyl—
but not until other ways are found to meet the national
energy shortage.
New in his job when I met him, Kupniy hoped he could
do something about other problems. The first, surely, is
inertia. “Years have passed,” he said, “and we're just
40
starting to talk about what needs to be done.” For
example, dikes must be built to block runoff from fields;
it carries cesium, albeit in modest quantities, to the
Dnieper River, the Kiev drinking supply. To safely bed
down No. 4, a super-sarcophagus needs to be built over
the present one. Officials hope an international agency
such as the World Bank will provide the necessary billion
dollars or so.
One day in the zone, I met some “partisans.” That's the
name given to such people as Nikolai Pavlenko, one of
700 evacuees who have come home. Wrinkled and 71,
Nikolai resides in the log house that he built as a young
man in the village of Opachychi, 15 miles from ground
zero.
Removed to a town many miles distant, he and his wife,
Katia, came back three years later. “Everybody wants his
own home,” Nikolai said simply, as if the matter needed
no further explanation. Zone officials have treated the
partisans tolerantly, knowing that their families had
dwelled for centuries in these now collapsing villages.
41
Nikolai grows potatoes and cabbages and fishes the
streams. “When I need something, I just sort of help
myself,” he said, nodding toward the empty houses.
Radiation? “We don't feel anything,” he said.
On the outskirts of Kiev, in a former tuberculosis
sanatorium converted to a hospital for Chernobyl
children, I met a “firefly.” That's the name thoughtless
kids apply to evacuees such as 15-year-old Roman, as if
they might glow from radiation.
“I have dizzy spells and headaches,” Roman told me.
And: “My heart hurts.”
“It is stress,” Dr. Evgenia Stepanova, the chief
pediatrician, said later. “He feels his heart racing. He can't
run or play sports.”
Roman told me wistfully, “We had a nice apartment in
Chernobyl—six rooms. It was beautiful there.”
Evacuated, his family ended up in a Kiev suburb. “They
gave us a three-room apartment. We've been trying to get
more space because there are three children. They keep
offering lousy apartments on the first floor, where it's
cold.” His father has ulcers, his mother headaches.
Dr. Stepanova intended to calm Roman's racing heart
42
with tender care, rest, and a nutritious diet. It's about all
the hospital can offer.
According to rumors circulating in Kiev, 5,000, even
10,000 Ukrainians have died from various ailments
somehow connected with the accident. But because
records were carelessly gathered or may not exist, the
medical arithmetic can't be summed. Cautious researchers
say only: “We don't know how many died.”
One of the most tragic consequences evident thus far is a
large increase in thyroid cancer in children. In Ukraine,
Belarus, and Russia this once extremely rare condition
totals more than 300 cases. What other afflictions
radiation exposure will bring is a matter of debate.
Estimates of the future number of cancer cases range
from 5,000 to 20 times that.
I beheld one consequence in a Kiev laboratory under the
43
microscope of Dr. Maria Pilinskaya: chromosomes,
magnified a thousand times, broken and mangled. “It is
serious,” she said. “It indicates risk of leukemia or other
cancers.”
She discovered this chromosome damage in blood
samples from children in seven towns outside the zone.
All the towns had been sprinkled with radiation, but
because the quantity was presumed not to be serious,
people were not evacuated. It is impossible to say how
many people are so affected. Dr. Pilinskaya could sample
only 25 to 30 children per town; most of them were
seriously damaged.
For now, according to Western as well as Ukrainian
investigators, stress such as afflicts Roman is a more
serious concern than cancer or chromosome damage. The
psychological and social problems stemming from
disrupted lives and radiation phobia lead to real diseases,
several researchers told me, including chronic bronchitis,
digestive-system problems, and hypertension, and may
compromise the immune system. This may explain why,
as is reported to be the case, the death rate among
irradiated people is far higher than average. By one
estimate, 70 percent higher, which indeed would translate
into thousands of deaths.
44
No town I saw was so full of stress—and aching hearts—
as Narodychi, whose whitewashed houses stand 45 miles
west of ground zero. “Our parents and grandparents built
these houses with their own hands,” a nurse said. “Let the
house be little, but it was ours. It will never be the same
anywhere else.”
Narodychi is one of the many towns beyond the zone
where the local fallout was not considered serious. Then
thyroid disorders appeared in children, and Dr. Pilinskaya
detected chromosome damage.
So, finally Narodychi was emptying. On a somber winter
day I came on a family loading furniture on a truck.
“There's no future here,” said a woman bringing out
dishes. “There's no food to buy, and it's not safe to eat
anything you grow.”
Across the way, an old man named Sasha, pouring
generously from his flask of samohon—moonshine—said
defiantly: “The only place I'm going is the cemetery.”
No one received greater doses of radiation than the first
of the liquidators, the Chernobyl cleanup army that may
have numbered as many as 750,000 workers. Some got
more than 200 rem, enough, physicians say, to cause
acute radiation sickness, a breakdown of body systems
characterized by nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
45
Survivors face an increased risk of cancer.
Other liquidators got little radiation but nevertheless
presumed that they were terribly afflicted. In a group of
Russian cleanup workers tracked by researchers, stress
led to suicides and alcohol abuse. “Everybody told them
that because of radiation they couldn't have a normal sex
life,” a doctor said. “It's a case of bad information causing
death.”
Dr. Ilya Likhtarev, Ukraine's expert on dosimetry, knows
of 3,000 liquidators who received more than the
“acceptable” onetime dose of 25 rem, and of 400 who
received 75 rem or more. “That multiplies the chances
that they will have cancer,” he told me.
For most of the liquidators, doses are simply unknown.
These include army recruits who did some of the most
dangerous work; for example, removing debris from the
reactor building roof. “They didn't have radiation badges
46
to record what they received,” Dr. Likhtarev said. “So
their lieutenants estimated the dosage. But they were
under orders not to report a dose of 25 rem, to hide the
seriousness. So the dose was recorded as 24.9. It came to
be known as the ‘administrative dose.’”
Dr. Likhtarev would like to know how these men fared.
“But they left the army and went back to Kazakhstan or
wherever. Some may have had acute radiation sickness
and not known what was wrong.” Some may be dead.
Teeth may help scientists construct estimates of the doses
that victims received, since radiation causes measurable
changes in the enamel. Researchers are collecting teeth
from dentists to evaluate enamel's usefulness as an
exposure meter.
“If dose and health can be correlated, it would help in the
future,” said Armin Weinberg of the Baylor College of
Medicine in Texas, a participant in one of the several
Chernobyl studies now under way. “We're sure to have
more accidents.”
At Eastertide, tradition demands that Ukrainians visit
their forebears. So back to the zone, with government
permission, just for a day, came busloads of villagers who
had been scattered far and wide—people of communities
atomized, in more ways than one.
47
In the hillside cemetery in Opachychi, shawled babushkas
placed tokens of remembrance—decorated eggs and
Easter cakes—among the crosses. Families sat upon the
graves, the traditional communion. They ate chicken and
drank samohon, greeted friends and cousins, cursed the
atom, and wept.
In late afternoon thunder rumbled and raindrops drilled
the earth. The people looked about wistfully, policed the
trash, and streamed down from the hill that holds their
fathers and mothers. And their hearts.
Source: National Geographic, August 1994.1
1"Effects of Chernobyl' Disaster," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
48
town in north central Ukraine, located approximately
130 km (approximately 80 mi) north of Kyiv (Kiev) and
20 km (12 mi) from the nuclear power plant of the same
name. On April 26, 1986, one of the four nuclear
reactors at this plant went out of control and caused the
world's worst known reactor disaster to date. An
improperly supervised experiment conducted with the
water-cooling system turned off led to the uncontrolled
reaction, which in turn caused a steam explosion. The
reactor's protective covering was blown off, and
approximately 100 million curies of radionuclides were
released into the atmosphere. Some of the radiation
spread across northern Europe and into Great Britain.
Statements from the Soviet Union, to which Ukraine
belonged at the time, indicated that 31 persons died as a
result of the accident, but the number of radiation-caused
deaths was projected to be much higher. More than
100,000 Soviet citizens were evacuated from areas
around the reactor site, and Chernobyl' and some other
settled regions remained unoccupied one year later.
Officials who were responsible for the reactor were tried
in 1987, and six persons were sentenced to labor camps.
The other three Chernobyl' reactors were returned to
operation that same year, and the immediate evacuation
zone of the disaster was later declared a national park. In
1991 the government pledged to close down the entire
49
Chernobyl' plant, but energy demands and economic
problems in Ukraine delayed the move. In mid-1994
Western nations developed an aid package to help close
the unsafe plant, and a year later the Ukrainian
government finally agreed to a plan that would shut
down the
remaining reactors by the year 2000.2
Near the end of World War II, on August 6 and 9,
1945, the United States government exploded a new
weapon, the atomic bomb, over the cities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. A departure from
conventional explosives, the bombs used the
nuclear power stored in the atomic structure of
matter, rather than chemical reactions, to produce a
devastating explosion. The blast destroyed more
than 10 sq km (4 sq mi) of the city, completely
destroying 68 percent of Hiroshima's buildings,
another 24 percent were damaged. Nearly 130,000
people were killed; more than 60,000 were
incinerated almost instantaneously in a tremendous
fireball. In Nagasaki one-third of the city was
destroyed and nearly 66,000 people were killed.
2"Chernobyl'," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
50
Over the next 50 years, nuclear weapons were
developed that dwarfed the 1945 bombs in
destructiveness, and major military powers stocked
their arsenals with these arms. Yet during those
years, nuclear weapons were never again used
against human targets. The world learned to live in
the shadow of these powerful weapons. In the
process, the atomic bomb became a symbol of fear,
achievement, and even amusement—a complex and
contradictory presence, permanently tied to the fate
of humanity.3
Nuclear Bombs
Nuclear weapons are the most powerful and
destructive explosives in existence. Modern
nuclear weapons, which may have the power of
several million tons of TNT, generally have 8 to 40
times more explosive power than the “Little Boy”
and “Fat Man” bombs that devastated Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in 1945. The devices shown here
are nuclear bombs used in periodic exercises of
the United States Air Force (USAF) strategic air
command.
U.S. Air Force4
3"Fifty Years of Life with the Atomic Bomb," Microsoft® Encarta®
98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.
4"Nuclear Bombs," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
51
Hiroshima, city on southwestern Honshu Island, Japan,
capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, at the head of Hiroshima
Bay. The city was founded in 1594 on six islands in the
Ota River delta. Hiroshima grew rapidly as a castle town
and commercial city, and after 1868 it was developed as a
military center. On August 6, 1945, during World War II
(1939-1945), the first atomic bomb to be used against an
enemy position was dropped on the city by the United
States Army Air Forces (see Nuclear Weapons). The
Supreme Allied Headquarters reported that 129,558
people were killed, injured, or missing and 176,987 made
homeless by the bombing. (In 1940 the population of
Hiroshima had been 343,698.) The blast also destroyed
more than 10 sq km (4 sq mi) of the city, completely
destroying 68 percent of Hiroshima's buildings; another
24 percent were damaged. Every August 6 since 1947,
thousands participate in interfaith services in the Peace
Memorial Park built on the site where the bomb exploded.
In 1949 the Japanese dedicated Hiroshima as an
international shrine of peace.
After the war, the city was largely rebuilt, and
commercial activities were resumed. Machinery,
52
automobiles, food processing, and the brewing of sake are
the main industries. The surrounding area, although
mountainous, has fertile valleys where silk, rice, and
wheat are produced. Population (1990) 1,085,705.5
This National Geographic article records some of the
perspectives of survivors on the 50th anniversary of the
World War II bombing of Hiroshima. The impact of the
atomic blast on individual lives is documented, as are the
modern city's efforts to deal with reminders of the past.
This account mentions that Japan surrendered only nine
days after the bombing on August 15, 1945, although the
emperor had formally agreed to terms the previous day.
Hiroshima:
Up From Ground Zero
By Ted Gup
It is on the third floor of Hiroshima's Funairi Mutsumi
Nursing Home that I first hear the name of Akiko Osato,
spoken by her 85-year-old mother, Shima Sonoda. A frail,
dignified woman with close-cropped black hair, she
closes her eyes to remember that distant summer morning
in 1945.
5"Hiroshima," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
53
Shima, a widow, had asked her three elder children to
mind the stationery shop in the front of their wood-frame
house while she and Akiko, her four-year-old daughter,
readied a wartime breakfast of soybeans, radish leaves,
and rice porridge. Shima did so with a sense of relief. A
few minutes earlier the air-raid sirens had sounded the all
clear, and she and the children had climbed out of their
makeshift bomb shelter, a shallow pit behind the house.
So far Hiroshima had been spared the firebombings that
had disfigured Tokyo, Yokohama, and other cities. It was
as if Hiroshima enjoyed some special immunity.
On that morning, as on so many before, Akiko pleaded
with her mother to open the coveted tin of tangerines that
had been set aside in the event of an aerial attack. “No,”
Shima told her daughter, “we must save the tangerines.”
54
At the moment the atomic bomb exploded, Akiko was in
her mother's arms, less than a mile from ground zero.
Tears run down Shima's wrinkled cheeks as she recalls
her children digging her out of the rubble. Her eyes are
tightly closed, her hands uplifted as if in supplication. “I
prayed, ‘I have four children, please save me!’ and I
heard the command ‘Stand up!’ It was the voice of my
long-dead husband.” When she was free they began a
frantic—and vain—search for Akiko before the firestorm
reached their neighborhood, forcing them to flee barefoot
toward the Ota River.
Like so many, Shima has always wondered why she lived
and her daughter did not. Not a single photograph of
Akiko survived, but Shima still carries her image
everywhere, just below the surface, like the tiny shards of
glass embedded in her scalp. “My greatest regret,” she
says, “is that I didn't let my daughter have the tangerines.”
And so every morning the mother kneels at the Buddhist
altar by her bed and offers up a can of tangerines to the
soul of her lost daughter.
For Shima Sonoda and countless others in Hiroshima and
throughout the world, 1995 is an anniversary of special
significance—the 50th year since the epochal first use of
an atomic bomb. The commemoration of this event
provides a somber occasion to take stock of losses. It also
55
gives an opportunity to explore the rebirth of Hiroshima,
which stands at once as a symbol of humanity's capacity
to destroy and of its indomitable will to rebuild.
Shima Sonoda is one of the 100,000 hibakusha—bomb
survivors—living in Hiroshima today. An ever shrinking
minority in this city of more than a million, they mingle
with the young and with newcomers drawn to a vibrant
metropolis, a place almost entirely devoid of physical
scars.
“Have Fun in Hiroshima,” invites a brochure put out by
city boosters, a collage of images of enthusiastic
Westerners amid red azaleas, bottles of sake, fireworks,
smiling Japanese children giving the peace sign.
“Hiroshima,” these promoters write, “has so much to
offer: beautiful parks, ancient shrines, engaging
museums, breathtaking landscapes, and exciting
nightlife.”
Yet for all this, ultramodern and full of promise as the
city surely is, it is something else too—a place of deep
and abiding sorrow. Indeed it would not be an
56
exaggeration to say that half a century after the bomb,
Hiroshima is not one city but two: one that can never
forget and the other that can never know.
For an entire generation of Japanese and Americans the
circumstances of 50 years ago are remote. Some find it
hard to imagine how the decision to bomb Hiroshima
could have been made. But the world was at war, and the
A-bomb was said to be a way to hasten an end to the
conflict, thereby saving the lives of American servicemen
who might otherwise have been doomed in a protracted
invasion of the Japanese homeland. Japan's capitulation
on August 15, 1945—nine days after the bombing of
Hiroshima and six days after the bombing of Nagasaki—
confirmed the efficacy of the decision.
Though I had never been to Hiroshima, it felt as if I were
returning. As a boy I had read Hiroshima, John Hersey's
account of the bombing, and I had always wondered what
became of the city and its people. I was not alone. Last
year more than 65,000 Americans visited Hiroshima.
Like many of them, I am drawn to ground zero, a narrow
street in the heart of the city where I stand before a simple
red granite monument festooned with thousands of tiny
paper cranes folded by schoolchildren. (In Japan the crane
is a symbol of longevity.) Behind me shoppers sweep
past, oblivious of the monument and its brass engraving
57
of a city flattened by the bomb. In front rises the rebuilt
Shima Surgical Clinic, where some survivors come for
treatment. I look up into a cloudless sky and feel, with a
shiver, 50 years gone.
August 6, 1945. Eight-sixteen in the morning. Nineteen
hundred feet above Hiroshima a single uranium bomb
dropped from the B-29 Enola Gay detonated with the
force of 15,000 tons of TNT. Where I stand, the
temperature rose almost instantly to 5400°F. Then came
the shock wave, firestorm, cyclonic winds, and
radioactive rain as black as ink. Some 80,000 men,
women, and children died. Among them were at least 23
American prisoners of war and thousands of Koreans
whom the Japanese had forced into wartime labor. Nature
compounded the misery when scarcely more than a month
later the Makurazaki typhoon raked Hiroshima.
By the end of the year the city's death count had reached
140,000, as radiation, burns, and infection took their toll.
The population then stood at 137,000, down from a
wartime high of 419,000. Seventy thousand buildings—
hospitals, police stations, post offices, and schools as well
as houses and apartments—had been reduced to rubble.
Survivors scanning the atomic wasteland concluded that
no plant would take root in the poisoned earth for 70
years or more.
58
Yet even that first spring the blackened stumps of
camphor and willow put out new growth. Buds and
blossoms reappeared, offering hope. Shacks sprouted
along the Motoyasu River. Limited trolley service
boosted morale, despite the fact that most residents had
no place to go. A black market flourished.
Although Americans with the Allied Occupation Force
provided technical help, financial assistance for
reconstruction was not forthcoming: The United States
was committed to helping rehabilitate its allies in Europe.
By November 1946 plans had been drafted for new roads
and parks. Schools were open again, albeit in temporary
buildings, and movie theaters and dance halls were doing
a brisk business. By 1953 the water and sewage systems
had been fully restored. A decade later Hiroshima had
grown to half a million people.
Today lush pink and white oleanders line broad avenues,
and stately sycamores and ginkgo trees extend their shade
to pedestrians wilting in the August heat. Out of the ashes
has arisen a fully modern city with an unwavering sense
59
of destiny. Before the bomb Hiroshima had been a seat of
Japanese militarism; its port, bristling with wartime
industry, had dispatched relentless invasions, notably of
China and Korea. The new Hiroshima is a selfproclaimed City of Peace, with a towering skyline,
cosmopolitan shopping arcades, and more than 700
manicured parks. Its port sends out to New York,
Shanghai, and London not soldiers but the latest in
consumer and industrial products. Last year the city was
host to the Asian Games, marking its coming of age.
Hiroshima stretches from the Inland Sea across the broad
plain of the Ota and up into the foothills of the forested
Chugoku Mountains. It occupies the site of a castle town
that emerged in the late 1500s, replacing earlier farming
and fishing villages in the Ota Delta.
On the southern side of the city, near the sea, rises a
single peak, Ogonzan, with a serpentine road to its
summit. From an overlook where vendors hawk
souvenirs, I scan the spreading quilt of neighborhoods
and commercial areas. To the south the gargantuan
headquarters of Mazda, one of the world's largest auto
production sites, can turn out 830,000 vehicles a year.
Beyond my sight to the southwest is another behemoth,
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., which produces bridge
girders, boilers, turbines, and machinery used in
manufacturing iron and steel. When the bomb fell, this
60
plant was part of the Mitsubishi powerhouse of wartime
shipbuilding and machine manufacturing—manned in
part by forced laborers from Korea.
It is not only heavy industry that busies the city. Workers
turn out soccer balls, intricately carved Buddhist altars,
elegant fude, or writing brushes used for calligraphy,
even sewing needles, an item that has been made here for
more than 300 years.
When I first arrived in Hiroshima on the highway from
Osaka, I searched the skyline for the skeleton of the
Industrial Promotion Hall—better known as the A-bomb
Dome—which I had expected to be a prominent
landmark. But my eye was drawn to the familiar signs of
home, a rotating golden arch and a blazing Coca-Cola
sign. Overhead zipped cars of the ASTRAM, Hiroshima's
ultramodern electric transit system. In the distance a
gigantic bowling pin loomed amid convenience stores and
shopping malls.
61
I drove along one of the six deltaic fingers of the Ota, on
whose banks the dying had once clustered, salving their
burns in the cool water. On these same banks joggers now
weave among luxuriant public gardens. On one street
corner I spotted a National Football League shop, with a
jersey of the Kansas City Chiefs and a poster of ace
quarterback Joe Montana displayed in the window.
Finally I reached the A-bomb Dome, a puny structure of
twisted concrete and steel that resembles a parasol
stripped of its cover by a gust of wind. As one of few
buildings near ground zero to have partly withstood the
blast, it is cordoned off, preserved for all time as a
cautionary statement, a plea for restraint in a nuclear
world.
Scientists who first came to Hiroshima to study the effects
of the bomb plotted concentric circles of destruction from
ground zero. Today different circles mark the lingering
impact—rings of memory spreading out from August 6,
1945. Japan claims some 333,000 registered atomic bomb
survivors, including those from Nagasaki. In Hiroshima,
many of the 100,000 hibakusha cling tenaciously to their
memories.
Take Yoshiki Yamauchi. Yamauchi is one of Hiroshima's
estimated 5,000 A-bomb orphans, a hundred of whom
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were brought to the island of Ninoshima, 20 minutes
away from the city by ferry. Over the years Ninoshima
came to be known as the “island of boys.” A peaceful
spot only 15 miles in circumference, it strikes me as an
oasis: Shiro palm trees and Susuki grass fringe the shore,
giving way to the verdant slopes of a lone peak, Little
Mount Fuji.
By midmorning, when I meet Yamauchi at Ninoshima
Gakuen, the school that now occupies the orphanage
where he grew up, the sea breeze barely nudges the
summer heat. Yamauchi works as the school's
maintenance man. Wearing loose-fitting green trousers,
he is a muscular 60-year-old with a bull neck and stringy
hair slicked down with sweat. But his manner is childlike.
That morning in 1945 his widowed mother had boarded a
trolley for the ill-fated Industrial Promotion Hall.
Yamauchi, who was then ten years old, was standing near
the Hiroshima railroad station when the bomb went off.
Even now Yamauchi puts out his hands to break the fall
in his mind's eye. Sand filled his mouth. Heat seared his
limbs, and he leaped into one of the tubs of water for use
in an emergency fire.
His memory of the turmoil that followed is hazy. Days
later, in the confusion, he became separated from his
sister. It would be 29 years before they found each other,
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following her emotional appeal on television.
After the blast he wandered the stricken city, scavenging
for food and earning what he could by shining shoes. He
slept in empty train cars. One day in the fall of 1946, he
and other parentless children were rounded up by the
police and brought to the orphanage. Yamauchi sets a
dog-eared photo album on the table in front of me and
opens it as reverently as if it were an ancient scroll.
“There I am,” he says simply, pointing to a snapshot of a
boy with a baseball bat across his lap.
“I wanted to get married when I was 25 or 30,” he
continues. Then, as if to ask, “What woman would have
me?” Yamauchi shows me the scar from a fibrous tumor
that was removed from his leg. I am reminded of
Philoctetes, the archer in Greek mythology whose
shipmates abandoned him on an island because they were
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repelled by a wound that would not heal. The difference,
though, is that Yamauchi's continuing exile is in some
measure self-imposed.
These days he often plays softball with the
schoolchildren, many of whom are mentally retarded or
disabled. “I envy these children because they have a
parent,” he says. “I am an orphan. No one ever came to
visit me with a box or a gift.”
When it is time for me to leave, Yamauchi insists on
showing me the way to the ferry. He pedals his bicycle
furiously, keeping well ahead of my van on the twisting
road. At the harbor turnoff he waves good-bye, smiling
for the first time, much like a lonely child who at last has
had a visitor.
Even hibakusha who sought to integrate themselves into
society often concealed their identities as bomb survivors.
Many employers refused to hire hibakusha because they
were prone to cancer and other ailments or because they
suffered from exhaustion and depression. They also
carried a social stigma. People went out of their way to
avoid marrying either hibakusha or their children, for fear
of genetic abnormalities induced by radiation.
It was not unusual for some parents to hire private
investigators to find out if prospective in-laws were
65
hibakusha. And although researchers at the city's
Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hijiyama Park
insist they see no evidence of intergenerational effects of
radiation, they concede that current analytical techniques
are not refined enough to detect variations. The
foundation is therefore collecting cells from a thousand
hibakusha families and preserving the samples in huge
stainless steel vats of liquid nitrogen, to be thawed
sometime in the future, when more precise methods are at
hand.
Furtherance of peace is a recurrent theme in Hiroshima.
People like Akihiro Takahashi, who was a 14-year-old
schoolboy at the time of the bomb, now lecture on the
subject as part of an outreach program in a building in
Peace Memorial Park, bordered by the hundred-yard-wide
expanse of Peace Boulevard. “We have to tell what
happened,” he said. “This must be handed down from one
generation to the next.”
66
Takahashi and those like him are on a mission to bear
witness in the name of peace. They constitute a powerful
lobby, whose influence gives city politics a global reach.
No nuclear test anywhere in the world is reported without
a telegram of protest signed by the mayor of Hiroshima;
at one time or another the leaders of China, France, the
U.S., and the former Soviet Union have all received such
telegrams. And in the heart of the peace park a flame will
be kept burning until the world is free of nuclear
weapons.
Peace education is an integral part of the curriculum in
public schools throughout the city, and schoolchildren on
field trips are frequent visitors to the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Museum. “I want to make Japan a peaceful
country,” said 11-year-old Maho Shichijo, pulling up her
Mickey Mouse socks.
When I met Maho, she was standing with her mother in
the playground of the Fukuromachi Primary School,
where 300 children had died in the nuclear inferno. Maho
has read more than ten books on the bomb, written school
reports about it, and badgered the custodian of her
apartment building, a hibakusha, to tell her all about how
he survived. Her mother, Tomoko Shichijo, who moved
here from Nagasaki, nodded approvingly at this interest.
“This is the best peace education. To know the reality. If
we lived somewhere else, we would never feel it
67
firsthand.”
I met another newcomer, Sakiko Ume, a housewife from
the island of Shikoku, who also told me that to be in
Hiroshima is to feel its past. “On the surface,” she said,
“Hiroshima looks bright, but deep inside it's sad.”
At no time is the sadness more palpable than on the day
of remembrance. Early in the morning of August 6, 1994,
I join thousands of hibakusha gathering in the peace park,
a triangular swath of green between the Honkawa and
Motoyasu Rivers. Here the idea of peace is enshrined in
numerous monuments—among them fountains, clock
tower, bell, and cenotaph. The throng presses toward the
altar at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, in front of
which rises a mountain of flowers. Every few minutes
attendants cart off armfuls of bouquets to prevent the
mound from collapsing under its own weight. Mourners,
many dressed in black and clutching prayer beads, drift
like apparitions through a white veil of incense. “Forgive
me! Forgive me!” sobs one aged woman, dropping to her
knees. Is she, perhaps, blaming herself for having
survived?
Behind a sign that reads A-bomb
Invitations), we take seats to hear
dignitaries. At precisely 8:15 there
unearthly silence. I am aware only
Survivors (With
the remarks of
is a minute of
of the sound of
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cicadas. The Peace Bell tolls, and a cloud of doves is
released beside the cenotaph. The flutter of their wings
fills the void left by 50,000 silent prayers.
In the Hondori Shopping Arcade, 200 yards or so from
ground zero, it is business as usual this morning at Cats
Pachinko Parlor. Cats is a hot spot for young people, who
congregate here to while away the hours amid a barrage
of flashing lights and throbbing music. Part pinball, part
slot machine, pachinko is a mesmerizing game: Every one
of the scores of machines is in play. Drawers full of silver
balls, representing winnings, are neatly stacked on the
floor. Outside, knots of youths trade compact discs and
take stock of one another's outfits.
On the opposite side of the arcade, in a trendy clothing
boutique, Mieko Nagafuji folds shirts to the beat of the
Rolling Stones. “I never think about the A-bomb,” says
Mieko, a pixieish 21-year-old wearing a necklace of
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pewter beads.
For her, World War II must seem as remote as the time of
the shoguns. Although she has lived in Hiroshima for
three years, she knows no hibakusha and has never set
foot in the peace museum. Even Peace Memorial Park,
where the anniversary observations are still going on a
few blocks away, is merely a romantic retreat: She and
her boyfriend take quiet walks there on Sunday
afternoons. I ask Mieko if she knows when the bomb fell.
“I learned it in school,” she says, blushing, “but I've
forgotten. Was it 1935?”
Enough time has passed now for Hiroshima to feel at ease
with its new affluence. Indeed the city is something of a
sybaritic haven, celebrated for its fine sake and delectable
oysters, best eaten in winter.
Nightlife centers on the downtown districts of
Nagaregawa and Yagenbori, warrens of narrow streets
and alleys awash in the neon light of more than 3,500
bars, restaurants, and discos. In Yagenbori my interpreter,
Kunio Kadowaki, and I duck through cotton curtains into
a smoky little café. We join patrons, many of them
regulars, who come here to indulge their taste for grilled
octopus from the Inland Sea, marinated chicken on a
skewer, or crispy fried lionfish. Late into the night, as the
sake and beer flow, the level of laughter rises. Smoke
70
from the grill and the ubiquitous cigarettes forms a thick
cloud. This is the other Hiroshima, vital yet relaxed and
congenial.
Many transplants are drawn to this city by its proximity to
the sea and to ski resorts. Yukihiro Masukawa makes a
tidy profit selling sportfishing vessels, which well-to-do
clients ply in the Inland Sea in pursuit of bonito,
mackerel, and marlin. In his office by Hiroshima Bay we
sip barley tea with Koichi Aoki, owner of a computersupply business. Aoki, 46 and already silver haired, gazes
out the window at his $500,000 boat, Marici, in dry dock
for cleaning. “That's like my religion,” he laughs. Above
us, tacked to the ceiling, is a white sheet with the inked
outline of one of Aoki's recent catches—a 440-pound
marlin. His retriever, Tabasa, curls up at his feet. “Life is
good,” he says, patting his ample belly.
Even for those of ordinary means Hiroshima offers
abundant diversions. Just north of the A-bomb Dome is
the 32,000-seat baseball stadium, home to the Hiroshima
71
Toyo Carp. Every season more than a million fans show
up for the games. Among those they come to see is a 31year-old American named Luis Medina, who at six-footthree dwarfs his Japanese teammates. Medina, a first
baseman, is the sole Yank on the team; only three
foreigners are allowed under the rules. He once played for
the Cleveland Indians and has moved 37 times in the past
decade.
After a stint in the outfield shagging flies in hundreddegree heat, Medina decides to take a break. He stoops to
clear the dugout's ceiling. “Yesterday I hit my head four
times,” he says with a grin. He is happy to be a Carp—not
only because he signed a lucrative two-year contract but
also because he and his wife could unpack their bags at
last. During games Medina is coached through an
interpreter, but the fans don't mind. Sometimes they jump
to their feet, yelling Med-in-a! He admits to being moved.
“Here, in the place we bombed 50 years ago, it sort of
freaks me out to get up at bat and see there's somebody
out there, a Japanese, waving the American flag. It's a
really good feeling.”
When I met him Luis Medina had not yet joined the 1.5
million people who stream through the halls of the peace
museum each year. Half a million of them are students,
and all but 80,000 are Japanese. On my first visit I stood
72
behind Yoshihisa Hirano and his daughter, Mariko, and
son, Hiroyuki.
“It's scary,” said Hiroyuki, transfixed by a diorama
depicting a woman, a girl, and a boy picking their way
through a fire-ravaged landscape. “I think all nuclear
weapons should be abolished as quickly as possible,”
added his father, who, it turned out, is a nuclear-reactor
operator with the Chugoku Electric Power Company. His
reactor is one of two that supply a sixth of the area's
electricity.
Many visitors record their impressions in a book on a
table near the museum exit. American remarks vary.
Some wonder how many more Japanese civilians might
have perished had the war continued. “Maybe the
Japanese should visit the Pearl Harbor Museum,”
suggested a U.S. marine. Another American wrote, “I
never really knew the full effects of the bomb until now. I
am sorry.”
In the basement of the museum complex, stretching along
the length of the wall, a catalog of index cards is
displayed every August. Each card has the name of
someone who died as a result of the bombing. The clerk
offers to search out one name for me. I choose Akiko
Osato, the girl remembered daily in her mother's prayers.
Minutes later he returns with a pink card. It has Akiko's
73
name on one line, and on the next, under the heading
“cause of death,” is the word “crushed.” On the line
below that is the name Yoshiharu Agari—apparently the
man who found Akiko's body.
I cannot bring myself to tell her grieving mother about the
card. Her pain still seems too deep.
Healing, for many, comes with faith, and that is the
concern of Shoin Aso, a Buddhist priest at the medieval
Fudoin Temple. Except for a few lost roof tiles, this
national treasure, which is located on the northern fringe
of the city, escaped the bomb. In August, during the
season of remembrance, Aso invites the grieving to
participate in the traditional Bon dance, through which
the faithful welcome the souls of the dead and send them
on to a place of greater peace. Aso hears many stories of
loss. “Year by year we forget the grief, but the guilt of
surviving doesn't disappear even as the years pass.”
On a hill overlooking the temple are the graves of some
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of those who died in the bombing. Many of the funeral
urns contain only rocks, because no remains of the
deceased were ever found.
The extent of the losses—in some instances the
elimination of entire bloodlines—explains why the past
still hangs in the air over the City of Peace. But, Aso
insists, “People shouldn't think Hiroshima is a sad or
sorry town. We should overcome self-pity. We cannot
live unless we think about the future. Hand, eye, and nose
are all forward looking.”
Source: National Geographic, August 1995.6
Nagasaki, city, Japan, western Kyushu Island, capital of
Nagasaki Prefecture, at the head of Nagasaki Bay.
Nagasaki Bay, about 5 km (about 3 mi) long and
sheltered on all sides, is one of the best natural harbors of
Japan. The city has important coal-mining and fishing
industries, shipyards and steelworks, and plants
manufacturing electrical equipment. It is the site of
Nagasaki University (1949). On August 9, 1945, during
World War II, three days after Hiroshima was destroyed,
a U.S. Army Air Force plane released an atomic bomb on
6"Recovery and Reconstruction," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
75
Nagasaki. About one-third of the city was destroyed, and
some 66,000 people were killed or injured. A memorial
now marks the location over which the bomb exploded.
Population (1990) 444,599.7
7"Nagasaki," Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.