At 8:15 AM on August 6th, 1945, the city of Hiroshima experienced the devastation of an atomic bomb for the first time in the human history. The bomb exploded in the center of Hiroshima city. People, buildings and everything within a 500-meter radius from the center of explosion were incinerated at a temperature of 4,000� c. The city was turned to ashes.
Then after Hiroshima, at 11:02 am of August 9th, 1945, the second atomic bomb was dropped on the northern part of Nagasaki city. It took the lives of 74,000 people and injured 75,000 more.
Every victim of the atomic air raid said, �I don�t want anyone else to experience the agony that I�ve gone through. No one should.� The agony they speak of is an experience that makes the �living envy the dead.�
A mother whose entire body was burned, her skin inflamed, looked like a ghost, giving her milk to her charred baby. The scene is nothing but a hell. The sequela from radiation affects not only for the individual. Their children and grandchildren have to suffer the hell-like-pain and agony also.
Death from the atomic bomb did not exist in human history prior to 1945. The atrocious death due to this holocaust is a death that humans have created. The technology has been used by science and medicine to shine a light on some illnesses that were once considered incurable.
I am following, from the beginning, this path of friendship and dialogue, opened by the Community of Sant�Egidio, in order to continue to live together the spirit of Assisi, and I am happy to have had the opportunity to be with you this year too. Let me stress � on the occasion of the sixty anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki � that we, men and women of faith, come to Lyon from the four corners of the world, must jointly work together in solidarity for the construction of a future of peace and prosperity, and demanding the immediate abolition of nuclear weapons. Also, a war is people killing people, regardless of the justifications people use. That is why we oppose any war. As people of religion we have to continue to oppose war.
Every year on August 6th an interfaith memorial service is held. This bridges the gap between different religions and different denominations and school within the same religion. Here, I�d like to introduce you a poem written by Mr. Sankichi Toge who was a victim of the bomb.
Give back my father, give back my mother;
Give back my elders;
Give me my sons and daughters back.
Give me back myself,
Give back the human race.
As long as this life lasts, this life,
Give back peace
That will never end.
In Tendai Buddhism, we have a saying that one should work for the benefit of other before oneself. This eliminates ones attachments and serves others with all of one�s mind and body. Do something so that others may achieve happiness before one�s own happiness. It teaches us, that this is the most important notion as a Buddhist.
