In November of this year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an association of Japanese atomic bomb survivors (Hibakusha) from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This grass roots group known as Nihon Hidankyo, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.
The award is timely given President Putin’s threat to use tactical nuclear weapons and even strategic ones, targeting population centers. This could lead to a use of even more powerful nuclear weapons that could draw other countries possessing them to enter the fray in a defensive posture.
As we know, this could produce disastrous results for the world community. As the Nobel Committee asserted, “Next year will mark 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 120,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A comparable number died of burn and radiation injuries in the months and years that followed. Today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power. They can kill millions and would impact the climate catastrophically. A nuclear war could destroy our civilization.”
On November 24, 2019, Pope Francis visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki and met with atomic bomb survivors. He prayed for nuclear disarmament and spoke passionately about the “black hole of death and destruction” that these weapons could cause today and called for a world without them.
He added: “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home.” He concluded by stating that “the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic weapons is immoral.”
He then developed his teaching: “In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of evermore destructive weapons are an affront crying out to heaven.”
He concluded with words of hope: “Convinced as I am that a world without nuclear weapons is possible and necessary, I urge political leaders not to forget that these weapons cannot protect us from current threats to national and international security.”
One such effort is House Resolution 77 Introduced in the US House in 2023 on behalf of the national Back from the Brink campaign. It embraces the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It also opposes a plan to replace the nuclear arsenal of the United States with modernized, enhanced weapons.
This integrates the teaching of Pope Francis against the expenditures of immense sums of money while the poor of our country and of other states live with food insecurity and the lack of health care. Actually, our country plans to spend up to $1.5 trillion over 30 years to overhaul its nuclear arsenal by rebuilding each leg of the nuclear triad and its accompanying infrastructure.
I am happy to say that our congressman, U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1, is one of the 44 sponsors and the group I am involved with, Veterans for Peace, is working assiduously to engage other representatives from our state.
Finally, the Nobel Committee states: “One day, the Hibakusha will no longer be among us as witnesses to history. But with a strong culture of remembrance and continued commitment, new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses. They are inspiring and educating people around the world. In this way they are helping to maintain the nuclear taboo – a precondition of a peaceful future for humanity.”
Most Reverend Peter A. Rosazza, D.D., Office of the Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus.
