[Applause]
earlier this year on the 13th of January
at 8:00 in the morning around them every
phone in the state of Hawaii received
this alert ballistic missile threat
inbound seek immediate shelter this is
not a trigger for 36 minutes everybody
panicked they didn’t know what to do
they didn’t know where to go they hid in
their staircases they got in bed and
held each other and they stared down the
last few minutes of their lives and then
just like that it was over it was a
false alarm with tensions in the world
the way that they are and it’s pretty
easy to see that this could have been a
reality experts say that it would take
about 20 minutes for North Korea to
strike Pearl Harbor if they launched an
ICBM right now
and well despite the fact that Trump
says he’s neutralized their threat he
hasn’t sort of seems like we’ve never
been closer to World War 3 but actually
if you look at it another way I think
we’ve never been closer to world peace I
think it’s how we choose to identify
with one another that’s gonna make the
difference it’s pretty obvious that the
world is kind of going through something
the human species is uttering ourselves
on social media we just shout in an echo
chambers and just confirm our own bias
and that’s the least extreme the most
extreme we have walls separating us and
this isn’t just hypothetical scenarios
is actually happening Palestinians and
Israelis are forbidden to communicate
with one another they don’t know each
other
North and South Korea it’s the same and
it’s as unpredictable as ever
and Trump separated parents from their
children at the US border and blamed the
other side for it whether or not you
think he’s causing the polarization in
the United States there’s no doubt he’s
exacerbating it but we can’t stop
talking to each other and even more
importantly we have to listen to each
other’s experiences because when we stop
listening we dehumanize and call each
other animals and when you call people
well growing up we didn’t hear the
stories of the people underneath the
mushroom cloud the atomic bomb survivors
we were just taught that it was a good
thing they ended the war quickly and
that even my grandfather was a hero
because he was the only one on both of
the planes that dropped the atomic bombs
it’s not lost on me that Here I am in
Japan as a friend seventy years after we
were enemies and that this is Nagasaki
prefecture the city that my grandfather
risked his life to destroy and you
welcome me you accepted the work that I
set out to do and every day you teach me
what’s possible to me I think peace is
possible because if we can come together
from the opposite sides of the atomic
bombings I think anybody can when I got
here I learned about the scale of the
destruction
I learned that Hiroshi my Nagasaki were
not just military cities but they were
home to thousands of children like this
woman here I learned this from
organizations that are taking part in
the international campaign to abolish
nuclear weapons known as I can
400 over 400 NGOs have come together to
abolish the nuclear threat and in 2017
I can was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
for their work to make nuclear weapons
illegal bespoke and ibaka Lucia’s
stories are two organizations within I
can whom I work close to
with that aim to bring atomic bomb
survivor testimony to the world he buck
vicious stories has brought 40,000
students to hear atomic bomb survivors
in New York and not only that but they
brought the grandson of President Truman
and myself because they don’t just teach
a message of the dangers of nuclear war
they also encourage a message of
reconciliation but if learning from
history helps us from repeating it we
have to listen to both sides of the
attack to understand not just what
happened but how it was my grandfather’s
job to make sure that the bomb went off
in the middle of the air to cause the
maximum amount of destruction below it
was expensive to train such a position
so he was used twice and he would have
been used a third time if there was an
attack but before he was my grandfather
before he was the double crew member he
was just Jake a 20 year old kid he was
studying mechanical engineering at Johns
Hopkins University he had about 30
foster brothers and sisters children
German refugee children my
great-grandmother took in to help find
permanent homes now these weren’t
orphans they were sent by their parents
to safety and he knew something terrible
was happening to Europe’s Jews and
that’s why he wanted to fight but he was
too young and then Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor and his parents lost all argument
well he was really smart and he kept
placing out of combat and they wouldn’t
let him fight he found out he was marked
for the Manhattan Project and on this
first day of the project they told him
that their mission was going to end the
war and so he thought well that’s that’s
great I’m gonna stay here and then the
war will be finished he used to say that
when you go down to the ocean and you
walk out into the water
you kick up the sand and it billows
that’s what the mushroom clouds look
like and in 1991 he was diagnosed with
bone cancer he died the same way that
many of the survivors of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki died there’s no doubt that he
was exposed he was a heap of Cuccia as
the atomic bomb survivors are called in
Japanese but the question I’m always
asked by reporters whenever they do ask
its did he express any guilt about what
he did before he died no he didn’t but
he never stopped talking about what he
did either he believed it was his
mission in life to bear witness to what
he called the worst acts of man’s
inhumanity to spell a man he’d hoped
we’d find a better way a way to get
along a way to never let this happen
again but how did it happen in the first
place
is it just because of resources in
ideology I don’t think so I think it’s
because we were separated we didn’t know
each other and that’s how we do human
eyes to each other I listen to the
stories of the nuclear holocausts
that my grandfather’s planes unleashed
mr. Ivers they lived through hell they
experienced trauma beyond words and
seven decades later they still speak out
until their last breath and instead of
yelling at me or Aang being angry with
me or kicking me out when I asked him to
meet with me they welcomed me and some
have become as close to me as family and
that’s why I think if you have the
intention to listen you can reach across
any conflict in any culture and you
don’t have to wait for your government
since the end of World War two we’ve
watched nuclear weapons proliferate
around the world
my grandfather believed though if we
forgot what happened when atomic bombs
are dropped on people they’re gonna be
dropped on people again I believe this
too but I am a bit more optimistic I
think we can save ourselves
last year today 122 countries if the
United Nations said that they agree they
voted to adopt the treaty on the
prohibition of nuclear weapons
of course the nine nuclear-armed nations
boycott the treaty negotiations and the
vote and they encourage their allies to
as well but the majority of the world
showed up and they said that the people
are the ones with the power because
together we can change international
laws and we can change social norms and
stigma that surrounds nuclear weapons
these aren’t just magic weapons they can
be dismantled we can take out the money
that goes into them and we can boycott
the banks that fund them we have to
because either on purpose or by accident
something like Hawaii could happen but
for real it could be a mistake but you
don’t get to undo that mistake before we
get rid of our weapons we have to get
rid of that us first then mentality that
keeps us stuck the way we are we have to
reach out and listen truly listen
because in the end we’re just human
you [Music]
earlier this year on the 13th of January
at 8:00 in the morning around them every
phone in the state of Hawaii received
this alert ballistic missile threat
inbound seek immediate shelter this is
not a trigger for 36 minutes everybody
panicked they didn’t know what to do
they didn’t know where to go they hid in
their staircases they got in bed and
held each other and they stared down the
last few minutes of their lives and then
just like that it was over it was a
false alarm with tensions in the world
the way that they are and it’s pretty
easy to see that this could have been a
reality experts say that it would take
about 20 minutes for North Korea to
strike Pearl Harbor if they launched an
ICBM right now
and well despite the fact that Trump
says he’s neutralized their threat he
hasn’t sort of seems like we’ve never
been closer to World War 3 but actually
if you look at it another way I think
we’ve never been closer to world peace I
think it’s how we choose to identify
with one another that’s gonna make the
difference it’s pretty obvious that the
world is kind of going through something
the human species is uttering ourselves
on social media we just shout in an echo
chambers and just confirm our own bias
and that’s the least extreme the most
extreme we have walls separating us and
this isn’t just hypothetical scenarios
is actually happening Palestinians and
Israelis are forbidden to communicate
with one another they don’t know each
other
North and South Korea it’s the same and
it’s as unpredictable as ever
and Trump separated parents from their
children at the US border and blamed the
other side for it whether or not you
think he’s causing the polarization in
the United States there’s no doubt he’s
exacerbating it but we can’t stop
talking to each other and even more
importantly we have to listen to each
other’s experiences because when we stop
listening we dehumanize and call each
other animals and when you call people
well growing up we didn’t hear the
stories of the people underneath the
mushroom cloud the atomic bomb survivors
we were just taught that it was a good
thing they ended the war quickly and
that even my grandfather was a hero
because he was the only one on both of
the planes that dropped the atomic bombs
it’s not lost on me that Here I am in
Japan as a friend seventy years after we
were enemies and that this is Nagasaki
prefecture the city that my grandfather
risked his life to destroy and you
welcome me you accepted the work that I
set out to do and every day you teach me
what’s possible to me I think peace is
possible because if we can come together
from the opposite sides of the atomic
bombings I think anybody can when I got
here I learned about the scale of the
destruction
I learned that Hiroshi my Nagasaki were
not just military cities but they were
home to thousands of children like this
woman here I learned this from
organizations that are taking part in
the international campaign to abolish
nuclear weapons known as I can
400 over 400 NGOs have come together to
abolish the nuclear threat and in 2017
I can was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
for their work to make nuclear weapons
illegal bespoke and ibaka Lucia’s
stories are two organizations within I
can whom I work close to
with that aim to bring atomic bomb
survivor testimony to the world he buck
vicious stories has brought 40,000
students to hear atomic bomb survivors
in New York and not only that but they
brought the grandson of President Truman
and myself because they don’t just teach
a message of the dangers of nuclear war
they also encourage a message of
reconciliation but if learning from
history helps us from repeating it we
have to listen to both sides of the
attack to understand not just what
happened but how it was my grandfather’s
job to make sure that the bomb went off
in the middle of the air to cause the
maximum amount of destruction below it
was expensive to train such a position
so he was used twice and he would have
been used a third time if there was an
attack but before he was my grandfather
before he was the double crew member he
was just Jake a 20 year old kid he was
studying mechanical engineering at Johns
Hopkins University he had about 30
foster brothers and sisters children
German refugee children my
great-grandmother took in to help find
permanent homes now these weren’t
orphans they were sent by their parents
to safety and he knew something terrible
was happening to Europe’s Jews and
that’s why he wanted to fight but he was
too young and then Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor and his parents lost all argument
well he was really smart and he kept
placing out of combat and they wouldn’t
let him fight he found out he was marked
for the Manhattan Project and on this
first day of the project they told him
that their mission was going to end the
war and so he thought well that’s that’s
great I’m gonna stay here and then the
war will be finished he used to say that
when you go down to the ocean and you
walk out into the water
you kick up the sand and it billows
that’s what the mushroom clouds look
like and in 1991 he was diagnosed with
bone cancer he died the same way that
many of the survivors of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki died there’s no doubt that he
was exposed he was a heap of Cuccia as
the atomic bomb survivors are called in
Japanese but the question I’m always
asked by reporters whenever they do ask
its did he express any guilt about what
he did before he died no he didn’t but
he never stopped talking about what he
did either he believed it was his
mission in life to bear witness to what
he called the worst acts of man’s
inhumanity to spell a man he’d hoped
we’d find a better way a way to get
along a way to never let this happen
again but how did it happen in the first
place
is it just because of resources in
ideology I don’t think so I think it’s
because we were separated we didn’t know
each other and that’s how we do human
eyes to each other I listen to the
stories of the nuclear holocausts
that my grandfather’s planes unleashed
mr. Ivers they lived through hell they
experienced trauma beyond words and
seven decades later they still speak out
until their last breath and instead of
yelling at me or Aang being angry with
me or kicking me out when I asked him to
meet with me they welcomed me and some
have become as close to me as family and
that’s why I think if you have the
intention to listen you can reach across
any conflict in any culture and you
don’t have to wait for your government
since the end of World War two we’ve
watched nuclear weapons proliferate
around the world
my grandfather believed though if we
forgot what happened when atomic bombs
are dropped on people they’re gonna be
dropped on people again I believe this
too but I am a bit more optimistic I
think we can save ourselves
last year today 122 countries if the
United Nations said that they agree they
voted to adopt the treaty on the
prohibition of nuclear weapons
of course the nine nuclear-armed nations
boycott the treaty negotiations and the
vote and they encourage their allies to
as well but the majority of the world
showed up and they said that the people
are the ones with the power because
together we can change international
laws and we can change social norms and
stigma that surrounds nuclear weapons
these aren’t just magic weapons they can
be dismantled we can take out the money
that goes into them and we can boycott
the banks that fund them we have to
because either on purpose or by accident
something like Hawaii could happen but
for real it could be a mistake but you
don’t get to undo that mistake before we
get rid of our weapons we have to get
rid of that us first then mentality that
keeps us stuck the way we are we have to
reach out and listen truly listen
because in the end we’re just human
you [Music]
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