May 14, 2024

His Excellency Joseph Biden

President of the United States

The White House

Dear Mr. President:

I have read a report that the United States is planning to conduct subcritical nuclear experiments in the first half of this year and next year at an underground test site in Nevada.

In April 2022, we strongly protested against the subcritical experiments your country had conducted twice in the previous year.

Mr. President, at the G7 Hiroshima Summit held in May 2023, together with other G7 leaders, you expressed your aspiration for nuclear disarmament. I understand this significantly boosted the momentum toward nuclear disarmament.

Only one year later, however, we learned about the plan for subcritical experiments, and this news tremendously disappointed the citizens of Hiroshima.

Should nuclear tests be conducted by the United States, it will certainly give other nuclear states, particularly Russia, China, and North Korea, an excuse to continue with their own nuclear development and to further reinforce nuclear deterrence. This in turn will obvious set back the efforts of the international community toward nuclear disarmament.

What is essential for building a peaceful world is not possessing or reinforcing nuclear weapons of overwhelming destructive power, but making untiring efforts toward nuclear disarmament, however difficult this may seem to be.

Relying on nuclear deterrence will eventually lead to the extinction of humankind and all other lives on this planet. I truly hope that you share this recognition with me. On behalf of the citizens of Hiroshima, who experienced the unprecedented catastrophe of the first atomic bombing in human history, I hereby strongly request that the United States will never conduct nuclear tests again.

Respectfully yours,