[Session#13 Speaker: Kyoko Hirabayashi]
Date: Nov 13, 2023
For the 13th session, we welcome Ms. Kyoko Hirabayashi, who has been conducting interviews with affected residents around the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in Kazakhstan.
In the September session, coordinator Mr. Takagaki reported what he learned in Kazakhstan, where he traveled in August. In Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, where the largest nuclear test site in the former Soviet Union was located, more than 400 nuclear tests were conducted over a 40-year period from 1949 to 1989.
We would like to ask Ms. Hirabayashi, who has actually conducted interviews with the affected residents, about what she has heard and learned from the interviews, as well as about the effects on generations to come and the hurdles in accessing such stories.
The TPNW, which will have its second Meeting of the States Parties in November, is a treaty that bans nuclear weapons. Kazakhstan is one of the leaders in the discussions on Articles 6 and 7 of the treaty, which stipulate support for nuclear victims, environmental restoration, and international cooperation for that purpose. What kind of damage has been done and on what scale? We would like to create an opportunity to learn about the nuclear lagacy in Kazakhstan again before the conference in November.
