The Japanese Committee of the World Conference of Religions for Peace informed adherents and supporters of its member religious organizations about nuclear disarmament issues on January 26, at Rissho Kosei-kai's Yokohama Dharma Center. It was an opportunity for Japanese people of religion to study the current situations surrounding nuclear weapons and seek ways to contribute to the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Following opening remarks by Rev. Yutaka Minabe, vice-chairperson of the Disarmament and Reconciliation Committee of Religions for Peace Japan, Dr. Shuntaro Hida, former director of the Hibakusha Counseling Center of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, delivered a lecture titled "Toward a World without Nuclear Weapons: A Doctor's Experience of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima."

Dr. Hida spoke about his own experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and his sixty years as a physician treating thousands of survivors. He said of radiation poisoning, "At the very instant the bomb exploded, radioactive elements were emitted on a huge scale and passed through people's bodies. Radioactive substances entering the body will continue to emit radiation without letup, destroying a person's cells bit by bit over a long time." He added that humanity must never again be subject to fallout from nuclear weapons. He went on to emphasize the need to build a mass movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons to force nuclear weapon states to give them up. He added that efforts to abolish nuclear weapons will test whether humanity can unite to solve other problems that are no less difficult.

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