Before Ulf Kristersson's meeting with Terumi Tanaka, which takes place during the Prime Minister's visit to Japan, Tanaka tells TT that he would have appreciated it if Sweden had refrained from membership in Nato.
I am well aware of the difficulties surrounding the problem with Russia and Ukraine. I understand that it is extremely challenging for Europe.
But as a result of this conflict, Sweden has joined Nato, which entails a direct dependence on nuclear weapons.
"Dead people everywhere"
Tanaka is co-chairman of the organization Nihon Hidankyo, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year. He was 13 years old when the US dropped atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945. To this day, he remembers the horrific scenes in his hometown of Nagasaki:
There were dead people everywhere. There were bodies that were severely burned, coal-black. People who survived had severe burns. Help couldn't get through. So they just lay there and suffered, says Tanaka.
Since then, he has seen it as his primary task to work for a world without nuclear weapons.
It's a shame that we haven't succeeded in our mission and now we have another crisis, he says, referring to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
Kristersson: Doesn't understand
The Nobel Prize has become a reminder that the organization's work is important.
It has encouraged us to continue our campaign.
After the meeting, Ulf Kristersson says that he doesn't understand why it's regrettable that Sweden has joined Nato.
I told him that we wholeheartedly share the ambition that nuclear weapons should never be used. But I have a very hard time seeing why peaceful democracies would let non-peaceful dictatorships be alone in having weapons that are the worst.
Then I have enormous respect for the fact that people who have themselves experienced the horror of nuclear weapons are working hard to get all countries to dismantle their nuclear weapons.
