Dear NAPF Community,

I am writing this message from Japan, where Christian, Kenneth, and I, joined by three summer interns from Columbia University, will be participating in the Choose Hope Symposium in Hiroshima, to honor the victims and survivors of the atomic bombings, to pay tribute to the legacies of the late Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Founder and President, Daisaku Ikeda, and NAPF Co-Founder and President Emeritus, David Krieger, and to chart a path forward for a world free of nuclear weapons. We are grateful to our partners at SGI for making the Symposium and our trip possible. We are also grateful to the Laidlaw Scholars program at Columbia University for their support.

We are currently in Tokyo, where we had the most inspiring meeting at the SGI Headquarters with SGI President Minoru Harada, SGI Director General for Peace and Global Issues Hirotsugu Terasaki, and other partners. We are continuing our journey with more meetings with diplomats, Japanese activists, SGI colleagues, academics, and journalists. The team was also able to visit the Lucky Dragon museum, where we learned about the tragic impact of the Castle Bravo nuclear test in Bikini Atoll on 23 Japanese fishermen aboard the Lucky Dragon. Less than nine years after the atomic bombings, the event marked a turning point in the anti-nuclear movement in Japan and beyond.  

The nuclear age began 80 years ago with the detonation of the Trinity test in New Mexico, followed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki just a few weeks later. But nuclear weapons are not just history, they are also firmly present in our current moment. Over the last few weeks, we have interrogated the past, present, and future of the nuclear age through numerous events and interviews. Please see below for more information about gatherings in Santa Barbara, New York, and online. Our work has never been more important, not only because of the significance of the past, but because of the necessity of ensuring humanity’s future.

I hope you will join us in this essential journey by learning more and supporting our work. Your generosity is what makes it all possible!

Upcoming