It is, indeed, a fantastic experience to be here in Hiroshima. I am honoured and moved and I am very grateful to the Organization Committee of the World Conference against A and H bombs, whose kind and generous invitation gave me this opportunity.
I have several reasons for considering this occasion one of the most important in my life. For us peace activists Hiroshima is what Mecca is for Muslims, Jerusalem for Christians and Jews, Varanasi for Hindus and so forth, once a victim of militaristic insanity, has since that tragedy been teaching the world the necessity of peace in the nuclear age.
And so has Japan and the Japanese peace movement. Thus, Japan has shown to the world that a country which has not taken much active part in the armament race can compete the more successfully in peaceful production and achievements.
The Japanese peace movement has been a great source of inspiration for peace organizations in other countries. In my home country, Sweden, we have often had the privilege of recieving as our guests Japanese peace activists and surviving Hibakushas from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Also my local peace society, Tuff, outside Stockholm has cooperated closely with Japanese friends. Twenty years ago many young Americans lived in ous homes after having deserted from the American war in Vietnam. They had been helped by the Japanese peace movement to escape from Vietnam to Sweden.
More specifically I am representing the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, abbreviated SPAS. It was founded already in 1883 and is the oldest peace organization still existing in the world. SPAS is also the biggest independent peace organization in Scandinavia.
Also in non-allied Sweden the government spends 30 000 times more on military forces than on the independent peace movement. So peace work is a tough job. In spite of that we have been able to count some notable achievements. One was a hundred years ago when SPAS launched the idea that Sweden should be neutral among the powers of Europe. This suggestion was at that time mocked and ridiculed by the establishment. Today, though, no political party dares to challenge it.
Another victory was the issue of Swedish nuclear weapons. Thirty years ago most of our politicians were in favour of atomic bombs of our own. Then the peace movement started to agitate and after a few years the opinion polls showed that an overwhelming majority of Swedes now had turned against nuclear arms. Today it is politically unthinkable in my home country to advocate för nuclear weapons.
On the other side, though, we now and then have nuclear weapons in our territory. A month ago the USS Ticonderoga, a 175 metres long American warship, arrived at Stockholm harbour. The Americans refused to tell if they had nuclear weapons on board. So their ship was surrounded by a lot of small boats from SPAS and Green Peace with posters saying “Friendship – not Warship”. Next day this so-called sea battle was front page news in all our papers.
As a matter of fact one of the hottest political issues in Sweden recently has been that nuclear powers refuse to tell if their visiting ships carry nuclear weapons or not. SPAS and other peace organizations are campaigning for making the Baltic Sea nuclear free. We do admire New Zealand and other countries that bravely have forbidden such ships to enter their waters.
Peace is, indeed, an international or transnational matter and therefore I am glad to see representatives from many countries gathered here today. I am happy to tell you that SPAS has joined your so-called Peace Wave rolling round the world today. At different places in Sweden Hiroshima Days are arranged, in my home town by an International Peace Camp of young people from Norway, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, India and Sweden. Later today I will report by telephone to Radio Sweden and to Radio Tuff, a special peace movemnet broadcast in the Stockholm area.
I am finishing with a verse that better than long speeches reflects the ideology of peace work all over the world. It is really internationel, because the words come from a Chinese fable, was sent to Sweden by our Indian partners and I am now reading it in English in a Japanese city:
Many little things
done in many little places
by many little people
will change
the face of the world.
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MONICA SCHELIN 1989
(In 1989 Monica was vice president of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society –SPAS and also chair-lady of its local branch Tyresö Society for Peace and Developing Countries – Tuff. She is still very active in Tuff and in Radio Tuff.)
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