Hiroshima witness urges Government to take lead on the elimination of nuclear weapons

When the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, Taeko Yoshioka Braid watched from the second-floor window of her classroom, 60 kilometres away.

Braid, who moved to New Zealand in 1956 and now lives in Hastings, travelled to Hiroshima the next day with classmates to look for her family members and take supplies to the victims.

Yoshioka Braid said it was hard to talk about the horrors she saw as a 13-year-old in Hiroshima, including children separated from their parents, and people dying from burns from the blast and the radiated water.

STUFF Taeko Yoshioka Braid witnessed the Hiroshima bomb as a 13 year old in Japan. Such devastation should never happen again, and she is urging the NZ Government to take action to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

On her second trip to the town at the epicentre, she felt something sticking to her shoes. She eventually realised it was human skin, which had melted off, following the blast.

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Yoshioka Braid's story comes at a time when the world is trying to grapple with nuclear diplomacy.

DAVID UNWIN/STUFF Thomas Nash says those making decisions about nuclear weapons need to remember the effects they have on humans.

Nuclear weapons have featured prominently in the public and political debate in recent months, with the escalation of the North Korea threat, followed by a watershed meeting between the North Korea's Kim Jong-Un and US President Donald Trump, which did not eliminate the North Korea nuclear threat as Trump had claimed.

Meanwhile, the US has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, which was reached by seven countries in 2015, following two years of negotiations.

At a time when the international rules-based order is being challenged, and nuclear weapons remain a global issue, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has reinstated the Cabinet portfolio of disarmament and arms control. Ardern announced Winston Peters would take up the ministerial role, during her first foreign policy speech in February.

REUTERS The bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (pictured) destroyed buildings, land, water sources, and lives, Yoshioka Braid says.

In September last year, New Zealand was one of the first countries to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at a ceremony during the United Nations General Assembly.

The treaty is a landmark legally-binding international instrument prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons and related activities.

In July last year, it was adopted by the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination.

Yoshioka Braid's comments came during the international treaty examination, at a Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee hearing on Thursday. Something that needed to take place before New Zealand ratified the treaty.

"If anyone went there the day the bombed dropped, I'm sure they would all think like me: never again...

"I don't want those same sorts of things to happen anywhere in the world; anywhere in the world."

It was difficult to describe the experience, she said, adding that the bomb was so strong, some people died instantly, others were alive but too injured to move or talk.

Her daughter, Jacky Yoshioka Braid said New Zealand needed to take a leadership role in the elimination of nuclear weapons.

"We need to stop the fighting, and stop this fantasy around a nuclear war that we possibly could survive - it won't happen.

"We saw what happened in Hiroshima, we've seen the after effects of what happened there and in Nagasaki. They were tiny compared to what could happen today."

New Zealand created a world-leading anti-nuclear policy in 1984, after seeing what happened in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the cold war years.

"I think it's really important that New Zealand takes this leadership role and helps guide these other young people around the world who want to stop the nuclear proliferation," she said.

Last month, former Green party candidate, and disarmament campaigner, Thomas Nash ​said "for technology that hasn't been used in conflict since 1945, nuclear weapons sure have a knack of getting on to the global agenda".

But it wasn't surprising given they posed the greatest existential threat to humanity next to climate change, he said.

Nash also spoke to the select committee on Thursday, urging New Zealand to take a leadership role in eliminating nuclear weapons and global disarmament, in general.

"This treaty has a humanitarian purpose, this is rather distinct from previous international deliberations on nuclear weapons, which have tended to be about big power politics between countries weighing up the grand game and the balance," he said.

Nash painted a picture of "Cambridge grads, strutting around in operations rooms, thinking about deterrents and game theory, missile silos and sleek nuclear submarines".

"I think it's important to think about bringing back this human element of the impact of nuclear weapons, because violence, militarism, relies on a dehumanisation of violence; abstracting it away from us.

"And I think if we're going to move away from that, we have to acknowledge the human face."

On behalf of New Zealand Alternative, Nash recommended New Zealand ratify the treaty next month, adding that early ratification would signal New Zealand's commitment to eliminating nuclear weapons and to making genuine progress on international disarmament work.

Nash was part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize last year after the group of Geneva-based activists was recognised for its role in pushing for a United Nations treaty declaring the weapons illegal.

ABOUT THE TREATY

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a landmark legally-binding international instrument prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons and related activities.

In July last year, it was adopted by the United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination.

In September last year, New Zealand was one of the first countries to sign the treaty, at a ceremony during the United Nations General Assembly.

At the time, then-foreign minister Gerry Brownlee said it represented an important step towards a nuclear-free world, despite no countries that currently hold nuclear weapons signing the treaty.

New Zealand's signing of the treaty was consistent with the country's long-standing commitment to international nuclear disarmament efforts.

"It establishes the first global prohibition on nuclear weapons and provides the international legal framework for a world without these weapons," Brownlee said at the time.

New Zealand joined over 120 other states in supporting the adoption of the treaty at a United Nations conference in July last year.

The treaty would come into force once 50 states have ratified it. At this stage 10 countries have ratified the treaty, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.