Forty bishops, archbishops, priests and lay leaders from the G7 countries are calling the G7 Summit in Hiroshima to protect all cities from Hiroshima’s fate. They have signed a Pax Christi International letter to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, host of the 19-21 May summit.
The G7 countries rely on vast nuclear arsenals, but are meeting in a city obliterated by a single atomic bomb.
The letter cites nuclear threats during the war in Ukraine. It says there is no better place to address such threats than in a city destroyed by them. Japan, as a nation, and Kishida, a leader from Hiroshima, are uniquely placed to call the G7 to action against nuclear threats, the letter says. Other G7 leaders are copied.
With the 40 signatories from G7 countries, PCI is requesting the G7 leaders to take positive steps at the Hiroshima summit: meet with atomic bomb survivors, agree to help victims of nuclear tests, resolve to reduce nuclear arsenals, and set a deadline to eliminate them.
The Pax Christi G7 letter notes that Pope Francis called both the possession and the use of atomic weapons “immoral” during his visit to Hiroshima in November 2019.
“Surely, the greatest honour the G7 could offer the people of Hiroshima,” the letter says, “is to acknowledge in their city that no city is truly safe as long as any country possesses nuclear weapons.”
The G7 members are United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada.
Read the letter here.
Cover picture “Hiroshima Peace Memorial” by Oilstreet – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30426032
