Interview with Ryukichi Imai, 1987

Item Information

Title:
Interview with Ryukichi Imai, 1987
Description:
Ambassador Ryukichi Imai--journalist, nuclear engineer, and general manager at Japan Atomic Power Company--was Japanese ambassador to the United Nations Disarmament Conference from 1982 to 1987. In the interview he conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age, Imai describes a career in which he became an expert on nuclear energy and non-proliferation in ways that paralleled Japan's stages of harnessing and expanding its reliance on atomic energy. Employed by Japan Atomic Power Company at the first commercial nuclear-power station in the country, Imai worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency to develop safeguards for nuclear technologies. He recalls that in the 1950s, few talked about the link between nuclear energy and weapons. He describes testifying on behalf of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Japan debated for six years before ratifying. Debate centered on whether Japan should have the right to arm itself and on the high costs of safeguards that would handicap industry in the global market. Imai argued in support of the NPT, and he did not want to jeopardize the 1951 mutual-security treaty with the United States that he regarded as paramount to Japan's safety. Imai explains why he believes that Japan will never embark on a nuclear-weapons program. He also predicts that, while Japan stands alone in its reliance on nuclear energy, rising energy prices--even post-Chernobyl--will revive worldwide interest in nuclear power. When U.S. president Jimmy Carter opposed Japan's first reprocessing plant at Tokai, it was Imai whom the Japanese government sent to the United States. There he successfully negotiated a solution with former colleague Joseph Nye, then deputy to the undersecretary of state for security assistance, science, and technology.
Interviewee:
Imai, Ryukichi, 1929-
Date:
February 25, 1987
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
WGBH Open Vault
Series:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Nuclear weapons
Nuclear energy
World War II
Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968)
Nuclear arms control
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Atoms for Peace (U.S.)
Middle East
International Atomic Energy Agency
Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl?, Ukraine, 1986
Peace movements
Nye, Joseph S.
Nuclear nonproliferation
Nuclear weapons--Testing
Carter, Jimmy, 1924-
Places:
Japan
Pakistan
United States
Extent:
01:13:57:27
Link to Item:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5B86C6499D254E3EA8B96CD8CCB372E8
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Identifier:
V_5B86C6499D254E3EA8B96CD8CCB372E8