Write a letter to the UN Secretary-General
Shinichi Kato, who traveled around the world calling for a "World Federation" and "Global Citizenship," attended the first Global Citizenship World Assembly held in San Francisco in July 1975. In January of the following year, he sent a letter to then UN Secretary-General Waldheim. This also shows the true character of Kato as an activist.
The letter was sent from Hiroshima on January 20, 1976.
The title of the letter is "PLEASE ASSIST NOT TO WASTE THE PEOPLE'S TAX MONEY-FOR-WORLD PEACE: An Appeal from a Hiroshima A-Bomb Survivor," and begins with "Dear Mr. Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the UN:"
He begins by quoting a verse from the Bible: "No one puts new wine into old wineskins." Although it is an old proverb, Kato says it still applied to the world situation at the time.
He expressed a sense of crisis that humanity, while it should be one family, remains trapped within the framework of the nation-state and that the peace movement is lacking in unity.He explained the ideas of Global Citizens, of which former UN Secretary-General U Thant was the first to register, and of a World Federation, and called on the Secretary-General to take strong leadership in enabling the UN to actively spread these ideas.
He can be contacted by his granddaughter, Sandra Kato.
I was informed of the existence of this document, which repeats the same consistent arguments as before, by Sandra Kato, Shinichi's granddaughter. Sandra Kato, the eldest daughter of Shinichi's only son, Kenneth, lives in California.
I had been searching for Kato's relatives in the United States for some time, and Yoko Nishimura of Discover Nikkei introduced me to Yoshi Akutagawa, a member of the Hiroshima Prefectural Association who lives in Los Angeles and who had once been close to Kato's family. Akutagawa then introduced me to Sandra.
We were able to exchange emails at the end of 2020. Sandra says that her mother (Shinichi's stepdaughter), who is still alive, knows very little about Shinichi. Her father (Shinichi's son), Kenneth, who has already passed away, is mentally traumatized by the Hiroshima atomic bomb and rarely speaks about anything related to Hiroshima. However, the family records remain in the warehouse.
The email also stated that there were several video clips of Shinichi "protesting against the United Nations," and that "they have not been digitized yet, but I intend to do so in the near future."
Sandra found Shinichi's appeal to the UN Secretary-General in a collection called "Mary McMillan papers, 1936-1997 and undated, bulk 1952-1991, bulk 1952-1991," left behind by Mary McMillan, an American religious leader and educator who devoted herself to peace activities in Hiroshima. The collection is held in the library of Duke University in the United States.
Mary MacMillan (1912-1991) was awarded the title of Special Honorary Citizen by the city of Hiroshima for her "long-standing contributions to women's education, peace education, social welfare, and other areas in the city of Hiroshima." It is not known whether she and Kato were on friendly terms, but it is likely that she was aware of Kato's actions.
In June 1978, two and a half years after writing his letter to the UN Secretary-General, Kato traveled to the United States to attend the First United Nations Special Session on Disarmament, and just prior to that he visited Hiroshima City Hall on May 25. The February 10, 1982 edition of the Asahi Shimbun carried an article about Kato, who had passed away the previous day, and included a photograph of Kato visiting Hiroshima City Hall.
On a large panel that Kato appears to have made himself, the faces of his deceased brother and sister can be clearly seen against a background of a photo of a mushroom cloud. The article's explanation reads, "Holding a panel filled with the resentment of his brothers and sisters who died in the atomic bombing," but from Kato's previous statements, it is clear that the true meaning of this panel is that, as someone who has lost a family member, such a thing must never happen again, and that "it is my desire for peace that goes beyond resentment."
Kato thus participated in the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament in New York as a member of the "Japanese National Delegation Calling on the United Nations to Completely Ban Nuclear Weapons," and subsequently attended rallies of anti-nuclear groups, calling for nuclear disarmament and the establishment of a world federation.
The face of Hiroshima with the heart of Hiroshima
His activities did not wane after he returned to Japan, and he even attended the Hiroshima Session of the Palme Commission, held in Hiroshima in December 1981. The Palme Commission was the United Nations Independent Committee on Disarmament and Security Issues, which was formed in the same year and was named after its chairman, the Swedish politician Olof Palme.
He had expressed a desire to attend the Second Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Disarmament, to be held in June 1982. However, he died of a cerebral infarction on February 9 of the same year.
The next day, Kato's death was reported in the newspapers, and the following quote from a person who knew Kato well was quoted as saying:
Aihara Kazumitsu, general director of the Hiroshima YMCA, said, "He traveled all over the country with his own pocket money, and ran around building a monument for World Federation in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park; he was literally a pioneer in the citizens' movement for peace. He is the third honorary citizen of the World Conference of Global Citizens, after U Thant and Norman Cousins. We wanted him to go to the United Nations, especially at a time when the movement to abolish nuclear weapons is gaining momentum internationally." (Asahi Shimbun)
One of Kato's supporters in the peace movement, Tomin Harada, chairman of the Hiroshima World Friendship Center, said, "He was a man who was devoted to world federalism. He would go to the UN Special Session on Disarmament even if it meant dying, and he would even say that he would be happy if he collapsed halfway through. He had many acquaintances overseas, so I think he was the face of Hiroshima with a Hiroshima heart." (Yomiuri Shimbun)
(Titles omitted)
© 2022 Ryusuke Kawai
