ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ROBINSON AT LUNCHEON HOSTED BY THE GOVERNOR OF HIROSHIMA PREFECTURE
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ROBINSON AT LUNCHEON HOSTED BY THE GOVERNOR OF HIROSHIMA PREFECTURE IN THE CRYSTAL ROOM, RHIGA ROYAL HOTEL
I want to thank you for affording me the courtesy of this visit to your Prefecture and City and for the gracious hospitality which you have provided for all of us today.
I also want to pay tribute to the role of Hiroshima as a centre for cultural exchange between Ireland and Japan; in particular to your contribution in hosting the Louis le Brocquy Retrospective Exhibition in 1990 and in facilitating last year the landmark co-operation between the Ohsha'joh Museum of Art and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.
As President of Ireland, I have come to Hiroshima on the occasion of this anniversary year to proclaim my admiration for this city as a centre of peace and to emphasise that the powerful resonance which the issue of nuclear weapons invokes in Japan is echoed also in the deepest feelings of the Irish people.
Hiroshima is a very special place, a place that enjoins us never to forget. Blessed by Nature, Hiroshima was blighted at the end of a long and terrible war. Fifty years afterwards, the horrific consequences of nuclear attack endure today in the bodies of men and women not yet born on that August day in 1945. The devastating material impact of the blast is before our eyes in the memorial, a ruined civic building which speaks directly and starkly to all who come here. And in the Museum, which I had the honour of visiting earlier today, human ingenuity has been put to work to impress indelibly on visitors the true message of Hiroshima: never, never again.
That message was brought to me in Ireland in a special way. In June 1992 I received on behalf of the people of Ireland the Stone of Hiroshima Pledging Peace, from the Stone For Peace Association of Hiroshima. I understood the symbolism of using streetcar pavement stones to build a dialogue for mutual understanding by bridging the differences such as race, religion and political beliefs. I treasure that Stone of Peace.
From our earliest days in the United Nations, Ireland has never been in doubt that the spread of nuclear weapons would inject incalculable factors into international relations and, in particular, increase immeasurably the difficulty of achieving international arms control and disarmament. In 1958, former Irish Foreign Minister, Frank Aiken, was the first to raise the issue of nuclear non-proliferation at the United Nations. His initiative and his dedicated efforts to build support for nuclear non-proliferation at the UN General Assembly in the ensuing years, culminated in what is to this day known as the Irish Resolution, Resolution 1665 (XVI), adopted unanimously by the General Assembly on 4th December, 1961. This landmark Resolution provided the inspiration for the negotiations on the Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it was to take another seven years before the Treaty was concluded and opened for signature in 1968.
Earlier today, I had the opportunity to present to the Peace Memorial Museum a text (in calligraphy) of Resolution 1665.
This year, fifty years after the Hiroshima blast and a quarter century after the entry into force of the NPT, we are approaching another critical point. The 25 year period initially assigned to the Treaty is drawing to a close. Ireland believes that the NPT is still of central importance; and that universal accession to the Treaty and full compliance with its provisions remain an urgent international priority. Accordingly we are working with our EU partners to ensure that the NPT emerges from the forthcoming Review and Extension Conference with its credentials further enhanced and its future permanently assured. It is heartening that Japan is also playing a key leadership role on this point, not least in a continent which, as we know only too well, is not yet free from the danger of nuclear proliferation
Ireland's attachment to the NPT owes a great deal to the fact that the Treaty enshrines a good faith commitment towards nuclear disarmament. Progress in this field is crucial. With the threat of nuclear conflict between the major powers no longer overshadowing our daily lives, nuclear arsenals are at last beginning to be reduced. Thus, there may never be a better time to press ahead towards comprehensive nuclear disarmament.
Hiroshima is universally acclaimed as a symbol of hope, renewal and reconciliation. It bears visibly the scars of its past so that in the future we can never ignore its message of peace. Those who visit this sacred ground and seek out its special power will leave with their trust restored in our ability to rebuild from the ashes of despair, to leave aside bitter divisions and enmity and work together to shape our future in a spirit of tolerance and friendship. However daunting or distant or difficult these goals may seem in our world of conflict, hunger and rage, Hiroshima gives us the courage never to falter in our endeavour and the determination never to fail.
I thank you again for your courtesy and generous hospitality today and I wish this community a prosperous and eternally peaceful future.