Basu said the people would have to made aware of the dangers of a nuclear war. The campaign for peace, for ban on nuclear weapons and its total elimination will have to be continued relentlessly in the coming twenty first century, Basu said.

Echoing the views expressed by Basu the Japanese delegates said a mountain could also be moved if people all over the world combined to raise their voice against nuclear weapons. Why then could we not stop the manufacture of atomic bombs or eliminate the nuclear arsenals? They called upon all to join hands in the campaign for abolition of all nuclear weapons.

The reception was organized by 59 frontal organisations. Hiren Mukherjee, an elderly intellectual, presided over the function. A member of the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, Mr. Mitsuo Sato is the leader of the 10-member delegation. Mr. Chittabrata Majumdar, General Secretary of the West Bengal unit of the CITU introduced the delegation members to the audience.

Basu said that the United Nations had adopted a resolution fifty years ago calling for elimination of nuclear arms from the face of the earth. . The world body has approved such resolutions later too. Unfortunately however, instead of the nuclear arsenals being depleted, these arms had multiplied over the years, Basu said. Basu laid special significance to the visit of India by the Japanese delegation as the Japanese organisation they belonged to, had issued the call for elimination of nuclear weapons from earth at a conference in Japan in 1998.Basu referred to the letters written by them to the different governments in the world and their citizens requesting them to create public opinion against nuclear weapons and start a signature campaign against nuclear arms. Basu has already put in his signature on such a document calling for elimination of nuclear arms and a ban on it. Basu hoped that the majority of Indian people would join the signature campaign against nuclear weapons. Basu said the Phokran nuclear blast in May made the people of India more conscious about the dangers of nuclear arms. This was also true about the people of Pakistan who also held similar views after the nuclear explosion in their country.

Recounting the events leading to the nuclear explosion in Pakistan, Basu said some people in India had started thinking after the Pokhran blast that the country had acquired a new strength. But later when Pakistan exploded six nuclear bombs, the people came to know that Pakistan had similar nuclear weapons. The euphoria was gone. Basu said that the left parties then made it amply clear that there was no question of attaining superiority militarily by detonating a nuclear bomb. He said that the BJP government at the Centre took to the extreme step of exploding a nuclear bomb when it found that it had failed to perform or deliver the goods to the people on all fronts.

Mr Mitsuo Sato hoped that India and Japan would stop the arms race. Member of Parliament of Japan and Director of Japan Peace Council, Akira Kasai hoped that the twenty first century would usher in a nuclear-arms free world.

Hiren Mukherjee said even after 53 years of the nuclear explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the people were yet to get rid of the effects of these explosions in Japan. The American imperialists were still boasting the nuclear holocaust perpetrated by them. He said there are at least 10,000 people living in Tokyo who had been victims of radiation following the nuclear holocaust .

The Japanese Peace Delegation had a hectic day in the city on January 21. They held a Press conference, met intellectuals, students, youths and trade unions leaders to exchange views on how they propose to conduct their campaign for elimination of nuclear weapons. The team told reporters that the Council would collect 2,000 million signatures for a ban on manufacture of nuclear weapons and for elimination of existing nuclear arsenals by the end of 2000 AD. The campaign against nuclear weapons has already been started in 160 countries. The team complimented India’s policy of non-alignment. Mr Sato said he could not understand why India was exploding nuclear bombs when thousands of people were living on streets afflicted by malnutrition. Even the present Prime Minister Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee when on a visit earlier of Japan saw for himself the destruction caused by dropping of nuclear bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.Vajpayee then not the country’s Prime Minister hoped no nuclear holocaust should recur again on earth.

Earlier in the day the visiting team met representatives of different democratic organisations. They exchanged opinion on five issues such as the task before the trade unions giving a boost to the campaign against elimination of nuclear weapons , the role the students, youths , women and intellectuals would adopt in making the campaign a success.

In the morning the leader of the delegation , Mr Sato had round of discussion with the trade union leaders in the CITU office. Mr Sato stressed the need for popularizing the peace movement. He also felt that the Comprehensive Test Ban Treat was a discriminatory one. Neither can CTBT ensure nuclear disarmament. The so-called five nuclear have been pushing the treaty for maintaining their hegemony in the nuclear weapons field. Leaders of the CITU, AITUC, TUCC, UTUC, UTUC (Lenin Sarani) participated in the discussion. The team met students and youths at the Yuba Bharati stadium, teachers and intellectuals in Calcutta University and representatives of the women's organisations too.