Hiroshima Lights the Way at the 2026 NPT Review Conference

In solidarity with the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA) and all those raising their voices at the 2026 NPT Review Conference. All photos courtesy of HANWA.

The 2026 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference has begun under a cloud of deep uncertainty. On April 27, 150 citizens gathered on the banks of the Motoyasu River, in the shadow of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. Together, they lit 1,500 glass candles, arranging the flames to spell out words the world's leaders urgently need to hear:

RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW. NO NUKES. NO WAR.

These were not empty slogans. They were lit in direct response to a world rapidly unravelling the legal and moral frameworks that have kept nuclear catastrophe at bay.

Haruko Moritaki, Co-Representative of Hiroshima Association for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (HANWA), stated:

"Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors, along with other anti-war and anti-nuclear activists, are working to ensure the NPT conference moves towards nuclear disarmament.

 

Hiroshima cannot stand idly by and await the destruction of humanity."

We are entering an era of madness marked by brutal slaughter and the use of nuclear technology—an era unprecedented in human history. Now is the time for humanity to hone the wisdom necessary to save itself and ensure its survival, and to stand up against the madness of those in power.

This is not distant geopolitics. Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors — hibakusha — carry in their bodies and memories the ultimate argument against nuclear weapons. And yet the nuclear-armed states continue to modernise their arsenals, make threats, and wage wars that edge ever closer to the nuclear threshold.

The HANWA statement released alongside the candlelight action puts it plainly: "Indifference and silence are the same as taking the side of the perpetrator."

The candle flames on the banks of the Motoyasu River were not only a memorial. They were a moral claim — that the lives of children lost to the atomic bombings, and the children still being killed in conflict zones today, demand something of us. They demand that we do not look away.

From Hiroshima to the world: the light is on. The question is whether those in power will see it.