Towards a World without Arms
(“Gunbi naki sekai o”)
1961 / B&W / 16mm / 41 min
Production Company: Japan Council against A & H Bombs
Support, Source: Japan Document Film
A record of the Seventh World Conference against A & H Bombs. The peace demonstration left Hiroshima Peace Park on June 14, 1961, heading for the conference in Tokyo, holding a memorial service along the way on August 6. After presenting world events such as France’s nuclear experiments in the Sahara desert, NATO troops training for nuclear war, the insurrection following the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, leader of the Congo, the continuing struggle for liberation in Laos and the meeting between Khrushchev and Kennedy, the film introduces the World Conference, with its preliminary meetings on August 9, the subcommittee meetings on the second day and the general meeting on the third day. On August 12, the main general meeting was held at the Taito Sports Facility. After foreign representatives appealed for the abolition of armaments and presented their own country’s situation amidst deep silence, the Okinawan representative explained the current situation of American control of Okinawa, and the representative from the island of Niijima introduced the movement to oppose the Niijima missile base. One after the other, representatives took the stage from as far north as Wakkanai in Hokkaido and as far south from Okinawa. On August 13, the second day of the main conference, five subjects were discussed in subcommittee meetings at Hosei University: the world situation and the abolition of armaments; the prohibition of nuclear testing and armaments; the abolition of military alliances and the removal of foreign military bases; aid for bomb victims; and the strengthening and international coordination of peace movements. The third day of the main meeting, August 14, saw thematic discussions in the morning and the final Main General Meeting at Tokyo Municipal Sport Gymnasium in the evening. The evening meeting had over 10,000 participants, and peace marches were held simultaneously in Copenhagen, America and England. The film finishes with the message that this Seventh World Conference against A & H Bombs is one great stronghold of peace, bravery, and conscience and that we have already begun making progress towards the coming Eighth conference. However, the following year’s Eighth Conference fell into disorder over a Socialist Party motion protesting nuclear weapons testing in the USSR, prompting the withdrawal of participants associated with the Socialist Party and preventing adoption of the resolution. The Ninth Conference was factionalized due to the Socialist Party’s boycott. Disgusted with the factionalization, Kamei quit filmmaking.