The Academy 2024 participants are required to read and watch the following materials. The “suggested” readings and videos are not required but encouraged to read and watch. Some of the materials are protected with passwords. Please refer to the Guidance for Participants.

Webinar 1: Humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons

• Topic 1: The atomic bombing of Hiroshima (Kazuhiko Futagawa / An in-utero Hiroshima A-bomb survivor)
• Topic 2: Downwinders (Mary Dickson / Award-winning writer, Playwright, An american downwinder, and thyroid cancer survivor )

Required videos

1. Mary Dickson, “Downwinders Interview with Mary Dickson,” the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library, January 2017 (9 min)

2. Mary Dickson, “Mary Dickson,” World Nuclear Survivors Forum 2021, December 2021 (10 min)

Required readings

1. ICAN, “The Impact of Nuclear Weapons on Children,” 2024

2. Mary Olson, “Human consequences of radiation: A gender factor in atomic harm”, Civil Society Engagement in Disarmament Processes – The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Ban, Civil Society and Disarmament 2016, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, 2016

Suggested videos

1. Sue Coleman-Haseldine speech at the UN conference to negotiate a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, 2017 (4 min)

2. ICAN and Peace Boat, Archives of the World Nuclear Survivors Forum 2021, 2021

Suggested readings

1. Setsuko Thurlow, “Setsuko Thurlow remembers the Hiroshima bombing”, Arms Control Today, July/August 2020

2. ICAN, “Black Mist – The impact of nuclear weapons on Australia”, 2014

3. ICAN, The University of Utah, “Downwinders of Utah Archive”

Webinar 2: Current and future nuclear risks

• Topic 1: What does nuclear deterrence look like in 2024? (Laura Considine / Associate Professor in International Politics, University of Leeds )
• Topic 2: Emerging technology (Yasmin Afina / Researcher for the Security and Technology Programme, UNIDIR )

Required videos

1. Future of Life Institute, “Artificial Escalation,” 2023

Required readings

1. Benoît Pelopidas, Kjølv Egeland, “The false promise of nuclear risk reduction,” International Affairs, January 2024

2. Yasmin Afina, Giacomo Persi Paoli, “Governance of Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain: A Multi-stakeholder Perspective on Priority Areas (Policy Brief),” UNIDIR, September 2024

3. Yasmin Afina, “The Global Kaleidoscope of Military AI Governance,” September 2024

Suggested readings

1. Patricia Lewis, Heather Williams, Benoît Pelopidas and Sasan Aghlani, Too Close for Comfort: Cases of Near Nuclear Use and Options for Policy, Chatham House, April 2014

2. ICAN, “Emerging technologies and nuclear risks,” 2020

3. Michal Onderco & Madeline Zutt, “Emerging technology and nuclear security: What does the wisdom of the crowd tell us?” Contemporary Security Policy, May 2021

4. Yasmin Afina, Calum Inverarity, Beyza Unal, “Ensuring Cyber Resilience in NATO’s Command, Control and Communication Systems,” July 2020

5. Beyza Unal, Yasmin Afina, “How to Deter Cyberattacks on Nuclear Weapons Systems,” January 2021

6. Yasmin Afina, et al., “Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence in the 21st Century,” April 2020

Webinar 3: The social, economic, and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons

• Topic 1:  Environmental impacts (Robert Jacobs / Professor, Hiroshima Peace Institute, Hiroshima City University)
• Topic 2: Social and economic impacts (Franziska Stärk / Researcher in the “Arms Control and Emerging Technologies” project, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH) )

Required Videos

1. Isao Hashimoto, “1945-1998“, CTBTO Preparatory Commission, 6 July 2012 (14 min)

Required readings

1. Robert Jacobs, “Nuclear Conquistadors: Military Colonialism in Nuclear Test Site Selection during the Cold War,” Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, November 2013

2. Kate Brown, “The Last Sink: The Human Body as the Ultimate Radioactive Storage Site,” Perspectives Issue 2016/1

3. W.J. Hennigan, “The Toll,” New York Times, 2024

4. Franziska Stärk, Ulrich Kühn, “Roundtable: Making nuclear injustice an agenda for change,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 2023

Suggested readings

1. ICAN, “Surge: 2023 Global nuclear weapons spending,” 17 June 2024

2. Vincent Intondi,  “Reflections on Injustice, Racism, and the Bomb,” Arms Control Today, Vol. 50: No. 6 (July/August, 2020): 12-15.

3. Matt Bivens, “Nuclear Famine,” IPPNW, August 2022

4. Ray Acheson, “A feminist critique of the atomic bomb”, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 2018

5. Proposals compiled by Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace (HOPe) and presented by the Governors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the G7 Hiroshima Summit, “Realizing a Sustainable Future Without Nuclear Weapons,” December 2022

6. Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki, ”Perspectives from Hiroshima: A reflection on nuclear weapons and SDG implementation,” UN High Level Political Forum Special Session, 2022

Webinar 4: The roles of the UN and civil society for nuclear disarmament

• Topic 1: Role of civil society and how to collaborate with other justice movements (Melissa Parke / Executive Director of ICAN)
• Topic 2: Role of the UN for disarmament and links to other global issues (Christopher King / Chief, Weapons of Mass Destruction Branch, Office for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations)

Required readings

1. UN Secretary-General, Our Common Agenda Policy Brief 9, “A New Agenda for Peace”, July 2023

2. Reaching Critical Will / Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), First Committee Briefing Book 2023, September 2023

3. Declaration “Our commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons” (Annex I) and the Vienna Action Plan (Annex II), Report of the First Meeting of States Parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, TPNW/MSP/2022/6, 21 July 2022

4. ICAN, Annual Report 2023

5. ICAN, “How the TPNW Works,” 2021

6. UN, “Summit of the Future Outcome Documents: Pact for the Future,” September 2024

Required video

1. ICAN, “If You Love this Planet,” 2017

Suggested readings

1. UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, “Securing Our Common Future – An Agenda for Disarmament,” UN Disarmament Agenda, 2018 (See also the section of ‘Disarmament and the Sustainable Development Goals’ on the website)

2. Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace (HOPe), “Hiroshima Report 2024,” March 2024

3. Draft final document of the 10th NPT Review Conference, August 2022

4. Chair’s Summary the Second Preparatory Committee for the 2026 NPT Review Conference, August 2024

5. Declaration “Our commitment to upholding the prohibition of nuclear weapons and averting their catastrophic consequences” (Annex I) and the Decisions (Annex II), Report of the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, December 2023

6. “G7 Leaders’ Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament,” May 2023

Materials before coming to Hiroshima

Required readings

1. ICRC, Why the ICRC wants nuclear weapons eliminated, June 2022

2. ICRC, Avoiding catastrophe: we must act now to ensure nuclear weapons are never again used, May 2023

3. Hidehiko Yuzaki, “Hiroshima’s Commitment to Cultivating the Next Generation of Leaders for a Nuclear-Free World,” Asia Pacific Leadership Network, August 2024

4. Hidehiko Yuzaki,  “From Hiroshima to Seattle, Sadako’s message of peace can’t be silenced,” Seattle Times, August 2024

5. Hidehiko Yuzaki, “Peace Message (2024 Hiroshima City Peace Memorial Ceremony),” August 2024

Suggested videos

1. “The trees that survived the bombing of Hiroshima,” BBC, 2020 (4 min)

2. Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels, “Out of Hiroshima, Into the Future – Life and Art in the Nuclear Age”, 2021 (90 min)

3. ANT-Hiroshima’s YouTube channel with Hibakusha’s testimonies in various languages

4. Cannon Hersey, “Hiroshima Revealed”, 2015
Cannon Hersey visited the present day Hiroshima to trace his grandfather John Hersey’s footsteps as he wanted to understand his grandfather’s feelings when he was writing the book “Hiroshima”. Koko Kondo, our guest educator, was featured in this documentary along with her father, a Methodist minister Kiyoshi Tanimoto.

Part I (49min)

Part II (50min)

Suggested readings

1. Mayors for Peace, “Vision for Peaceful Transformation to a Sustainable World (PX Vision),” 2021

2. Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace (HOPe), Global Alliance“Sustainable Peace and Prosperity for All”, 2022

3. “Kakuwaka: a group of young people actively thinking about nuclear weapons”, Hiroshima for Global Peace, 2021

4. Sumiko Hatakeyama and Akira Kawasaki, Navigating Disarmament Education: The Peace Boat Model, Civil Society and Disarmament 2020, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, 2020

5. Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition of Nagasaki University (RECNA), Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, and Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN), Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons Use in Northeast Asia: Implications for Reducing Nuclear Risk, March 2023