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The truth is being hijacked
• Affirms Fidel during a meeting with
members of the Japanese Peace Cruise that arrived in
Cuba on September 21 from the Canary Islands
Leticia Martínez
Hernández
EVERYBODY in the hall was shaken, including Fidel.
They were the words of Junko Watanabe, who was
barely two years old on that tragic August 6, 1945.
She was playing with her brother in the yard of
their home when her mother’s agonized cries
interrupted their absorption in the game to warn
them that something horrific was happening. Junko
does not remember anything about that lugubrious
day, but has reconstructed every second of the act
that tore her apart like the burns that blinded
thousands of Japanese there in Hiroshima, the city
which was destroyed when Junko had barely begun to
take her first steps.
 This
woman, wise and sad, traveled together with more
than 600 Japanese aboard the Peace Boat, convened to
“Learn from past wars to build a future of peace.”
In my judgment, this slogan has a special value,
Fidel said some minutes before listening with
consternation to Junko’s testimony. "I would dare
say without any doubt that never in human history
has there been a moment as dangerous as this one.
This is not about an excursion, this is about a
struggle that is real and serious. I hope that these
exchanges will enlighten us as to what is being
thought, what formulas could be possible, as to
realistic solutions, not just a simple expression of
a desire. For me the meeting has great importance
precisely because of the experience that you have
accumulated on this subject,” Fidel told them
precisely on September 21, World Day of Peace.
Junko spoke of that experience in Fidel’s meeting
with the members of the Peace Boat, the cruise liner
that has docked in Cuban ports on various occasions
since 1990. She told a heartrending story which, at
times, made her voice shake, made her weep. Junko
said that it was lovely weather in Hiroshima that
August morning, but "a black and sticky rain began
to fall on us." Her parents told her that,
afterward, she began to suffer from the attacks of
diarrhea which threatened her short life. "I could
eat, but not digest the food. My parents thought
that I would die.”
Perhaps it was the memories of this hibakusha
(atomic bomb survivor) which prompted the Comandante
to recall his visit to Hiroshima, "I was in the
Museum. They explained everything to me there, what
survived, what didn’t. One of the most horrific
images was of the unborn children of pregnant
mothers with some months left…The real fact is that
today humanity is threatened with things as horrific
as you have told us, or even worse.”
For
that reason Fidel gave so much attention to the
meeting," I was glad to received the invitation to
dialogue with you, given the importance of the
moment at which we are living, which is not just any
moment, but also out of a sense of gratitude, as I
know of your solidarity, the difficulties, the
struggle against blockades during these years, the
boat’s identity, the ports where you could go and
where you couldn’t go, whether they allowed you to
refuel or not.” He then recalled that August day
when he heard the news of the attack. "I was a
student. It was summer there in Santiago de
Cuba…Nobody had the faintest idea of the existence
of a weapon of that nature.”
He
then told Junko that he had found many documents of
older survivors who had relived a past of terror
through their stories. Junko recalled the images of
a documentary by Japanese journalists in which “the
scenes are brutal, the city is disappearing, turning
black, where the people are mindlessly walking the
streets, full of dismembered bodies.”
Then
the Comandante, with his usual sensitivity,
apologized for the questions that he wanted to ask
her. He told her that the meeting was to be
broadcast on national television, if she had no
objections. “We are very interested in public
opinion being aware of all this, not just
transmitting it here, but in other countries. What
happened there is extremely important, independently
of what has been published.” Fidel wanted to know
how long it took for the dust produced by the bomb
to reach the people. Junko searched in her memory.
She answered, around 30 minutes. "Were your parents
in the house? Did your mother suffer burns?” he
inquired. Junko explained that her family lived 18
kilometers from where the bomb exploded, and what
they received was a wave of dust, that her mother
and other little brother were outside of the house,
that her father was in a building in the city from
where he saw the airplane which sent Hiroshima into
mourning.
After the questions, Fidel informed the members of
the Peace Boat, on its fourteenth visit to Cuba, of
the recent visit by Alan Robock, the highly regarded
researcher from Rutgers University, who gave a
lecture on the nuclear winter theory, based on the
danger signified by a regional nuclear war. "He
starts out from current facts, very different from
that moment when the first nuclear war was launched.
He takes into account the current situation, with
the existence of 25,000 nuclear weapons. He says
that 100 nuclear explosions would suffice to produce
what he describes as a nuclear winter. For example,
a war between India and Pakistan with the number of
weapons in each ones possession, would be sufficient
to put an end to life on the planet.”
The
Comandante said that he would give them a copy of
the conference because it contains information of
great value. He recalled the fact that “the power of
existing weapons is 45,000 times greater than that
of either of the two bombs dropped on Japan.” Then
it occurred to him that Robock, “a generous,
splendid man,” could give a lecture on the
dimensions of the danger to the members of the
Japanese organization. He explained that a nuclear
explosion would result in clouds of dust extending
throughout the world in less than three weeks, that
temperatures would fall to freezing point, thus
implying the disappearance of all food production.
Fidel went on to comment on the worldwide ignorance
of the issue despite the volume of prestigious
research, and on the term “state of denial,”
referred to by Robock in the context of people
rejecting the idea of thinking about horrific
things. That explanation, Fidel noted could be
extended by other aspects related to the media.
“There is information about things that are
happening in the world, but despite all the existing
media, there are no explanations. The truth has been
hijacked, it is not known. Of course, if the masses
cannot read or write, they cannot even attempt to
find out.” He spoke of the case of Cuba, of its
Revolution, “which has not been defended with force,
but has been defended with knowledge, with
awareness,” despite 50 years of blockade.
Later on, with the same insistence, Fidel asked what
has been said about the environment, about climate
change. “There’s no need to wait for a nuclear war
for life to disappear on the planet.” He recalled
that the development of countries is based on
non-renewable energy sources like oil. “One hundred
million barrels extracted every day! Humans are
wasting oil that nature has accumulated in 400
million years… they have wasted half of that fuel in
130 years.” And he spoke of another problem that
nations have to approach: “The population cannot
grow in an unlimited way. A population of
approximately 9-10 billion inhabitants is being
calculated for the year 2050.” Fidel affirmed his
opinion that people have to enjoy life and what is
happening is that approximately 8-10 million
children are dying every year as a consequence of
hunger or a lack of medication.
The
leader of the Revolution was then informed of the
Cuban doctor invited aboard the Peace Boat. He is
Iván Toledo Rosa, who was saving lives in Haiti, and
then of the dancer José Ramón Mendiola Osorio, a
kind of Cuban cultural ambassador on the Japanese
cruise liner. Fidel thanked them both, after
commenting on the internationalist vocation of Cuban
doctors, who have extended a hand of solidarity in
many countries of the world. “It is a test of
conscience. What our compañeros did in Haiti is a
product of conscience, the conscience that made the
Revolution possible… in spite of the criticisms made
of us and the errors that we could have committed
because no human work is perfect.”
Fidel recalled that this is an important moment
because the United Nations is discussing its
millennium goals: “The United Nations is the only
one that, supposedly, we have – because on occasions
it would seem that it doesn’t exist – given that
problems of development, goals in education, goals
in health are actually discussed there, and every
time that there is a crisis, a setback occurs.” He
spoke about the purchasing power of U.S. citizens,
which has been reduced by 43.6%, about the
consequences of underemployment, about the 80% of
engineers in the United States working in the
military industry.
“It
is a great democracy, to such an extent that it has
12,000 lobbyists in Congress, which costs $3.5
billion per year. Result: all the big transnationals
have control over the U.S. Congress, which is the
institution that has to ratify agreements; if there
is a disarmament agreement or an agreement on the
reduction of nuclear weapons, it is Congress that
has to approve them. Now the role of a president in
the United States is an unknown one. He cannot do
anything, and this is the man who has a nuclear
briefcase.”
Referring to those sad days of August 1945, Fidel
concluded that “it was not necessary to utilize that
bomb. The imperial forces of Japan were already
defeated, there was no need to drop those bombs to
win that war. It was an act of cruelty, an
experiment,” he stated.
And
in the face of the possibility of another tragedy he
brought up the discord over Iran: “If they attack
Iran in order to destroyer its nuclear reactors the
war will become nuclear.” From there, he once again
insisted on the need to pay greater attention to the
subject, to cooperate, to be aware of the dangers.
It was then that many people understood Fidel’s
message when, minutes earlier, he asked Nao Inoue,
leader of the Peace Boat delegation, “Could you tell
me the speed of the Peace Boat?” to which Nao
replied smiling, “More or less that of a fast
bicycle.” And Fidel, said outright: “I think that in
these times the Peace Boat should travel faster.”
The
Peace Boat sailed for the first time in 1983. Since
then, the Japanese non-governmental organization has
made 70 voyages around the world bearing its message
of peace. According to its director, Nao Inoue, more
than 40,000 Japanese have taken part in these
voyages under the slogan: “Learn from past wars to
build a better future.” During the meeting with the
leader of the Revolution, Nao Inoue said that the
Japanese pacifists are against the U.S. blockade of
Cuba and also advocate the liberation of the five
Cuban heroes. “We want to extend a bridge between
Japan and Cuba, between Latin American and Asian
countries,” he commented. And in that endeavor they
are going to sea again to visit Nicaragua.
Translated by Granma International
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