Pope visits Hiroshima, appeals for end to wai

Press, 26 February 1981, Page 6

Pope visits Hiroshima, appeals for end to wai

NZPA-Reuter Hiroshima On the spot where the world’s first atomic weapon to be used in war exploded, Pope John Paul yesterday appealed to world leaders to pledge themselves never to launch another' conflict “On this very spot where, 35 years ago, the life of so many people was snuffed out in one fiery moment, I wish to.appeal to the whole world on- behalf of life, on behalf of humanity, on behalf of the future,” the Pope told a crowd of about 4000 in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. . „ “To the heads of State and of government, to thoSe who hold political and economic power, I say: let us pledge ourselves to peace through justice, let us take a solemn decision, now, that

war will never be tolerated,” the Pope declared. Between 100,000 and 200,000 people are estimated to have died from the direct blast andilater radiation-re-lated diseases caused by the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War in 1945. Pope’ John Paul, who arrived, in Hitoshima yesterday morning from Tokyo on the tenth day of his 12-day Asian tour, added: “Let- us promise our fellow human beings that we will work untiringly for disarmament and the banishing of all' nuclear weaponsi ; “Even" if a mere fraction of the available weapons were to be used, one has to ask whether.. ■. . the. very destruction of humanity is

not: a real possibility,” hi said. Emphasising the universality of his appeal, the Pope began his speech in Japanese and switched to eight . other languages — English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Russian, and Chinese. The Pope observed that there were some who wanted to scrap all nuclear weapons while others viewed nuclear capacity as an unavoidable means of maintaining a- balance of -power through a balance of terror. His own view was that there could be no justification for failing to raise the issue .of the responsibility of each nation and each individual in the face of this nuclear periL