Oregon Becomes Second State in Nation to Support Nuclear Ban Treaty

Hideko Tamura Honored in the Joint Memorial

The Oregon Legislature has approved a joint memorial (SJ5) calling on the US
government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which the
UN adopted and opened for signature by the world’s nations on September 20,
2017. The bill also supports federal legislation that would end the President’s sole
unchecked power to launch nuclear weapons, end nuclear first-strike, take nuclear
weapons off hair-trigger alert, stop wasteful spending on a new nuclear arms race,
and lead negotiations with other nuclear armed states to abolish nuclear weapons.
The legislative victory was achieved by a coalition of 31 state groups, including
Peace House. The work was led by Portland-based Kelly Campbell, executive
director of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. Both Sen. Jeff Golden and
Rep. Pam Marsh were sponsors of the bill.

Hideko Tamura, who lives in Medford and has been a highly visible advocate for
nuclear disarmament over the years, entered the following written testimony during
hearings on SJ5: “As a survivor of Hiroshima, with memories of the horrific deaths
and suffering still vivid in my mind even after nearly seventy-four years later, I
don’t want anyone ever to experience what we lived through.” She is recognized in
the bill for her life-long dedication to abolishing nuclear weapons.
Since the UN adopted the treaty in June, 2017, it has garnered little attention in the
mainstream media. That’s because our government has been opposed to it. Support
must be generated at the grassroots, as was the case when the US and USSR were
locked in an arms race that threatened all humankind. So Peace House has
prioritized the work of raising people’s awareness of it. One approach was to
create the Oregon Nuclear Disarmament Communications Network, which has
connected activists throughout Oregon west of the Cascades. The existence of that
network facilitated our legislative victory.

Only California and Oregon have gone on record urging US endorsement of the
treaty. We hope it encourages similar efforts in other states, in a way similar to the
Nuclear Weapons Freeze resolutions that spread across the nation in the early
1980s.

Oregon House Votes to Urge Congress to Lead Global Effort to Prevent

Nuclear War

[Salem, OR] – Today, Oregon’s House of Representatives voted to approve Senate
Joint Memorial 5 (SJM 5), which urges congress to lead a global effort to reduce
the threat of nuclear war, making it the second state in the nation after California to
pass such legislation in both chambers. The bill passed the Oregon Senate on May
20th.

The bill was introduced at the request of Oregon Physicians for Social
Responsibility with the support of 31 organizations around the state and garnered
moving testimony from a Japanese Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor), Hanford
Downwinder, Atomic Veteran, the Marshallese community, a Corvallis city
councilor, and more. The bill language and testimony can be viewed here. Chief
Sponsors included Senator Michael Dembrow (D-Southeast Portland),
Representative Tawna Sanchez (D-North & Northeast Portland), and
Representative Alissa Keny-Guyer (D-Southeast Portland) along with 15 other
legislators from throughout the state.

“As a survivor of Hiroshima, with memories of the horrific deaths and suffering
still vivid in my mind even after nearly seventy-four years later, I don’t want
anyone ever to experience what we lived through,” wrote Dr. Hideko Tamura, a
Hibakusha who lives in Medford, Oregon, in her testimony supporting SJM 5.
Dr. Tamura is acknowledged in the bill for dedicating her life to the eradication of
nuclear weapons.

SJM 5 acknowledges that Oregon taxpayers are spending roughly $188 million
annually on nuclear weapons, money that could be better spent on education,
health care, infrastructure and the environment. It calls out the racial injustice and
harm to human health that nuclear weapons have already caused from uranium
mining on indigenous land to weapons testing in the Marshall Islands to the
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the contamination of the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation upriver from our state. It asserts that treaties and international
agreements that are now being abandoned by the US administration such as the
INF treaty and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran Nuclear Deal)
actually keep Oregonians safe.

“As a member of the Hanford Clean Up Board, the intergovernmental body
overseeing the clean up of the most toxic contamination site in the Western
Hemisphere, I have witnessed first-hand the difficulty and extreme cost that
nuclear storage and decontamination efforts incur,” explained Representative
Tawna Sanchez, one of the bills chief sponsors.  “We are still attempting to deal with today, the lingering residue of the nuclear decisions of our past, and it is
literally costing us billions of dollars.”

The bill supports federal legislation that would stop the President’s sole unchecked
power to launch nuclear weapons, end nuclear first-strike, take nuclear weapons
off hair-trigger alert, stop wasteful spending on a new nuclear arms race, and lead
negotiations with other nuclear armed states to eliminate nuclear weapons. It also
calls on the US government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons which is supported by the majority of the world’s nations.

“Oregonians have the human right to live a life free from nuclear contamination
and the threat posed by the reckless use of nuclear weapons,” said Representative
Alissa Keny-Guyer, a chief sponsor who carried the bill on the House floor.
“At this moment in time, when the risk of nuclear war is higher than any time
since the cold war, we must do everything we can to work for nuclear
disarmament.”

“In our current political climate with the looming threats of war and a new nuclear
arms race, it’s vital that local elected officials speak up for diplomacy and
protecting their constituents from the devastation of nuclear weapons and war,”
said Kelly Campbell, Executive Director of Oregon Physicians for Social
Responsibility. “I applaud Oregon’s legislature for passing this bill and joining
with the majority of countries in the world that support the Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”

###

Guided by the values and expertise of medicine and public health, Oregon
Physicians for Social Responsibility works to protect human life from the gravest
threats to health and survival by striving to end the nuclear threat, advance
environmental health, protect our climate, and promote peace. www.oregonpsr.org

Tweet:

BREAKING: Senate Joint Memorial 5 just passed the Oregon legislature. Oregon
is now on record urging Congress to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war.
#orleg #orpol #nonukes #btft #actonnukes #sjm5 #nuclearban #nuclearweapons

Oregon is now the second state in the US to support the #nuclearban treaty. Senate
Joint Memorial 5 passed the Oregon legislature today !#orleg #orpol #nonukes

#btft #actonnukes #sjm5 #nuclearban #nuclearweapons

Facebook post:

Today, Oregon’s House of Representatives voted to approve Senate Joint
Memorial 5, which supports the Nuclear Ban Treaty and urges congress to lead a
global effort to reduce the threat of nuclear war, making it the second state in the
nation after California to pass such legislation in both chambers. We are one step

closer to stopping the threat of nuclear weapons!

Kelly Campbell
Executive Director
Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility
1020 SW Taylor St, Suite 275, Portland, OR 97205
Pronouns: she / her / hers