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19th December 2014
By Andreas Toupadakis, Ph.D.
Guest Writer for Wake Up World
Following a career in industrial and classified-government positions, former nuclear scientist (and current lecturer for U.C. Davis Department of Chemistry) Andreas Toupadakis Ph.D. quit the nuclear labs in January 2000, realizing that government scientific programs are only interested in developing systems of war, not peace.
This article is adapted from a speech delivered by Dr. Toupadakis in the months following his resignation, at the “World Conference Against Atomic & Hydrogen Bombs” at Waseda University in Tokyo. Almost 15 years on, Dr. Toupadakis’ message of sanity and humanity is (unfortunately) still as important today as it was then.
‘Refusal to cooperate with nuclear weapons development: Leaving the job and joining the peace movement’ ~ Waseda University, Tokyo.
My Dear Colleagues and Fellow Earth Companions,
I was born in Crete, a beautiful island of Greece, where even from a very young age, I had heard about the dreadful act committed against humanity during WWII in Japan.
On a recent radio show in the USA, I was asked the question: How many more people would have been killed if the war had not ended? My answer was that we do not know. The host of the show was happy with my answer, believing many millions more would have died, which justified the use of nuclear bombs to end the war. Obviously, he understood precisely what he was conditioned to believe, not what I was trying to convey. My point was that the war was almost over and the abhorrent act was not necessary, while he saw it as a heroic act.
It is what we see that we bring into our lives. What people think is eventually manifested in the world. And the world thinks of war when it prepares for war. We still continue with the same way of thinking. We have not learned the lesson.
I consider it a privilege to be here today, to feel your history first hand. There are some people who have realized that the human species has become an endangered species and that we are running out of time. What should scientists do? How many more times can we ask that question?
We scientists who have understood the seriousness of our human condition must act on behalf of those who have not. I am asking these scientists worldwide to come together and establish a relief agency for assisting those scientists who are still within the system, but are ready to wash their hands of work that supports war; an agency that will support them in every possible way when they take the leap of faith to advocate for peace.
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