March 27, 2017
Masako Toki
Over 80 high school students from the United States, Russia and Japan will gather from April 3-5 at a conference on nuclear disarmament in Nagasaki, Japan, the second city in history to experience nuclear devastation.
Event flyer highlighting Dr. Lassina Zerbo
The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) is co-sponsoring the conference as part of its annual Critical Issues Forum (CIF), in partnership with Kwassui High School in Nagasaki, Nagasaki city, Nagasaki prefecture, Nagasaki University, Research Center for Nuclear Abolition, and Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace. This is the first time that the CIF has held its annual spring conference in Nagasaki; the 2015 conference was held in Hiroshima.
The conference, which will be held at the Kwassui High School Chapel, will showcase research presentations by students and teachers from six American high schools located across the United States, four Russian high schools in closed nuclear cities, and seven Japanese schools on this year’s topic, “Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and its Role for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons.” Dr. Lassina Zerbo, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), is scheduled to deliver the conference’s keynote address at a public symposium that will be held on April 4. The mayors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima are also scheduled to participate in this component of the event.
The CIF conference is the culmination of a semester-long program for high school students that is designed to develop critical thinking skills and to engage students and teachers around issues related to international peace and security. Over the course of the 2016-2017 academic year, CIF students have focused their research on the concept of nuclear test bans and their role in bringing about a world free of nuclear weapons.
This year’s CIF program is funded by the United States-Japan Foundation, a New York-based organization supporting activities to deepen friendship and understanding between American and Japanese citizens, and the Tom and Sarah Pattison Fund. For more information on the CIF program, please visit the CIF website and view this short video.
Participating high schools:
United States
Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT
Harker School, San Jose, CA
Dr. Olga Mohan High School, Los Angeles, CA
Pacific Grove High School, Pacific Grove, CA
Punahou School, Honolulu, HI
Rock University High School, Janesville, WI
Japan
Hiroshima Jogakuin Senior High School, Hiroshima
Kaisei High School, Tokyo
Kansai Soka Senior High School, Katano
Kwassui High School, Nagasaki
Nagasaki Higashi High School, Nagasaki
Soka Senior High School, Tokyo
Yokohama Senior High School of International Studies, Yokohama
Russia
School No 41, Novouralsk
School No 39 Ozersk
School No 125 Snezhinsk
School No 164, Zelenogorsk
Contact: Masako Toki 831-915-6162 (mobile)
