Youth Reject Nuclear Weapons

Soka Gakkai International (SGI) facilitated a survey of youth at the beginning of this year from countries including New Zealand.  Text below is from the SGI website:

Asked whether the presence of nuclear weapons contributes to global peace and stability, 59.6% of respondents, including those from the nuclear states, said no.

Further, 67.3% said the use of nuclear weapons was not acceptable under any circumstances, with only 17.5% seeing it as acceptable as a last resort if a country’s survival was threatened and 6.1% to prevent international terrorism or genocide.

A total of 59.1% said they would feel safer if nuclear weapons were abolished.

Asked which countries possess nuclear weapons, 66.9% of the respondents identified the USA, 48.7% said Russia, 30% China, 19.8% the UK and 19.8% France. Fewer respondents were aware of the nuclear weapons possessed by India, Pakistan and Israel, while 40.7% thought North Korea had them.

Within the nuclear states, just 59.2% of US respondents were aware that their country possessed nuclear weapons, and only 43.2% of UK respondents were aware of their country’s possession.

Survey organizer, Soka Gakkai student group leader Takahisa Miyao, comments:
“Almost 70% of respondents said the use of nuclear weapons was not acceptable under any circumstances. This is encouraging for us. Building on the widespread rejection of nuclear weapons by youth will be key to our People's Decade for Nuclear Abolition campaign.”

Full results can be viewed at:  http://www.peoplesdecade.org/about/efforts/survey.pdf