Atombombeoffer to the pope: Everything was destroyed. It was dark as it was evening, and it smelled of rotten fish.
Survivors from the atombombeangrebet on Hiroshima described the Sunday “scenes from hell” to pope Francis, who calls the use of nuclear weapons a crime.
During a four-day visit in Japan does the pope have both visited Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where he reminded the victims of the atombombeangrebene in 1945.
American forces dropped an atomic bomb over each of the two cities at the end of the Second world War. A bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6. august. The bomb over Nagasaki followed on 9. august.
In Hiroshima met the pope several survivors of the attack, which supported his appeals to the world never forget the catastrophic consequences of the atombombeangrebene in Japan.
Yoshiko Kajimoto was 14 years old when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped and killed 35.00060.000 civilians immediately. In total 140.000 killed by the Hiroshima bomb.
When I went outside were all the surrounding buildings destroyed. It was dark as it was evening, and it smelled of rotten fish, she said to the pope.
From time to time she opened her eyes and her voice trembled as she told of how people “went around side by side as the ghost – people, whose bodies were so burned, that it was not possible to distinguish men from women”.
Kajimoto took his father three days after the attack, but he died 18 months later of radiation to which he had Milanobet been exposed. Her mother suffered from a number of diseases, in 20 years, while she even came to fight with stomach cancer and leukemia.
the Pope had earlier during his visit in Nagasaki called for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. He calls it to possess nuclear weapons for the perverse and indefensible.
– the Possession of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction is not the answer, called it in a speech, as the pope kept in the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park in Nagasaki.
It was here that an american nuclear bomb hit the 9. august 1945 and instantly killed 27,000 people.
– Our world is marked by a pervert dual system, which tries to defend and ensure stability and peace through a false sense of security, as maintained by fear and mistrust, the pope said in his speech.
– Peace and international stability is not compatible with the attempts to build the world through the fear of mutual destruction, or the threat of total annihilation.
Pope Francis is only the second pope in the history of the world, visiting Japan. And he is the first pope who visits the country for 38 years.
According to the catholic church in the country, is well a half of one percent of the japanese population are roman catholics.
/ritzau/Reuters
