The exhibition ‘Everything You Treasure-For a World Free From Nuclear Weapons’ organized by Soka Gakkai Mexico was displayed at the Anahuac University with the aim of raising awareness among young people about the danger of nuclear weapons 80 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
By Guillermo Ayala Alanis.
Mexico City (INPS Japan) – An exhibition hall at the Anahuac University, located north of Mexico City, was the epicenter for young students to understand the danger posed by nuclear weapons and the importance of the fight for their non-proliferation undertaken by civil society organizations such as the Soka Gakkai, the Alfonso García Robles Diplomatic Foundation and international organizations such as OPANAL.
Inauguration of the Expo Everything You Treasure-For a World Free From Nuclear Weapons at Anahuac University.
Patricia Eugenia Ruiz, Anahuac University; Flávio Roberto Bonzanini, OPANAL; Sonia Barneche, Anahuac University; Rafael Medina, García Robles Foundation and Nereo Ordaz, Soka Gakkai Mexico. Credit: Guillermo Ayala, INPS News.
Students from various degree courses such as International Relations, Communication, Design and Engineering were able to see the exhibition ‘Everything You Treasure-For a World Free From Nuclear Weapons’ organized by Soka Gakkai Mexico.
‘Alfonso García Robles, the driving force behind the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which protects all of Latin America from the danger of nuclear weapons. From Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego,’ said Nereo Ordaz, president of Sokka Gakkai Mexico, in an interview with INPS Japan.
The exhibition features 42 information boards produced through a collaboration between Soka Gakkai International and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN. The posters invite people to reflect on the danger that nuclear weapons pose to the life of the planet and the struggle of civil society to prevent their proliferation.
‘We understood that the driving force is in the youth. Young people are the greatest treasure a nation can have. They have creativity, strength, purity, heart,’ added Nereo Ordaz. Meanwhile, Patricia Eugenia Ruiz, Director of Internationalization of Universidad Anáhuac commented that
It is very important for students to be aware of the reality in which we live, regardless of what they are studying. She added that it is necessary for students to understand ‘how we can all contribute and have an impact on the kind of world we want to live in’.
In the last three years, nearly one hundred thousand people, including students, teachers, administrators and civil society, have been able to see the exhibition in various universities in Mexico. The exhibition includes posters informing about the financing of nuclear weapons research and production. It highlights that 329 banks, pension funds and other financial institutions from 24 countries are involved in the issue. In addition, you can learn about the consequences of nuclear weapons on health and the environment, and the consequences they had on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, precisely in the year that marks the 80th anniversary of this event.
‘There is no need for nuclear weapons… it seems silly to me that they still exist after all they have done… we young people should make ourselves known about it,’ commented Julieta Arias, a design student at Universidad Anáhuac while viewing the exhibition. Meanwhile, Alex, an engineering student pointed out that ‘a war under these (nuclear) conditions would be quick and irreversible and the consequences it would leave would be lamentable’.
Soka Gakkai Mexico is present in 68 cities in the country such as Merida, Playa del Carmen, San Miguel de Allende, Tijuana and Veracruz.
On 26 January, Soka Gakkai International celebrated its 50th anniversary and its work to promote values to foster a world of peace should be more relevant than ever, especially among young people. In this context, in the city of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Soka Gakkai International received an award from the Diplomatic Foundation Alfonso García Robles for its work in benefit of the struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament.
In an interview for INPS Japan, the president of the García Robles Foundation, Rafael Medina, emphasized that it is essential for new generations to sow the seeds of peace and nuclear disarmament. He asked the younger generation to be proud that Mexico was the driving force behind the world’s first Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone and that efforts for nuclear disarmament should be increasingly intense and deeper. ‘The threats we are facing today are not a game; and they are not threating in the air. They are certain and substantiated threats from great powers that are in conflict’.
Rafael medina also reported on the promotion of a documentary film that exposes the work of the Father of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones, Alfonso García Robles, in his struggle for a world free of nuclear weapons, which won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982.
The exhibition event ‘Everything You Treasure-For a World Free From Nuclear Weapons’ was also attended by OPANAL Secretary General Flávio Roberto Bonzanini, who also insisted that young people can build a safe and peaceful world. He invited them to become informed and vocal against nuclear proliferation and asked them to reflect on how nuclear weapons pose a threat to what is most precious in life.
Together with Ambassador Bonzanini, a young Japanese woman from Hiroshima, Yumi Sato, joined the OPANAL delegation. Mrs. Sato is an intern at OPANAL and is the granddaughter of a female survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. She is in her final semester of her Master’s degree in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. She said that young people in both Japan and Latin America have a similar opinion about eliminating nuclear weapons in the future and said she was happy to be living in Mexico with young contemporaries her age.
The exhibition ‘Everything you treasure for a world free of nuclear weapons’ will continue to be presented in various universities and public places. The director of Soka Gakkai Mexico, Nereo Ordaz, noted that they will soon also present an exhibition on sustainability and the environment in various Mexican educational places.
This article was produced as a part of the joint media project between INPS JAPAN and Soka Gakkai International in Consultative Statuss with ECOSOC on march 2025
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