60^th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Pledge for Peace
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into sickles”
Japanese Conference of Major Superiors of Women August, 2005

In August 2005, on the occasion of the 60 ^th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, we representatives of the major superiors of women from both Japan and the United States have come together in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As consecrated women, we call to mind what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago and as representatives of all religious sisters of Japan and the United States, we declare our determination to join together in efforts to say "No" to all forms of violence, to oppose war, and to work for the building of peace.

"War is the work of man. War is the destruction of human life. War is death."¹ Pope John Paul II's appeal for peace in Hiroshima 24 years ago, beginning with these words, was addressed to the whole world and is directed towards us now with even greater urgency. The twentieth century was a century of war. The twentieth-first century, which began with barely the faintest hope for peace, has been marked by the continued killing of innocent people including the elderly, women, and children, in numerous wars and regional conflicts.

"To remember the past is to commit oneself to the future,"² Pope John Paul II said repeatedly. Have we really accepted the past, admitting our mistakes honestly? Based on that admission, are we working towards the creation of a world of peace? Unfortunately, in recent years, the Japanese government appears to have turned its face away from the realities of the past and to be moving steadily towards turning Japan once again into a potentially war faring nation. Concerned with that trend, the Japanese bishops have noted that "in Japan, movement away from our peace constitution has accelerated" and have raised the question, "As citizens and as members of the Church standing at the crossroads of momentous change we ask, 'Do we want to continue to push on in this direction?' Are we following the road of love and peace which Jesus Christ pointed out to us at the cost of his life?³

Pope John Paul II, in his Appeal for Peace, said, "In face of the man-made calamity that every war is, one must affirm, again and again, that the waging of war is not inevitable or unchangeable. Humanity is not destined to self-destruction. Clashes of ideologies, aspirations, and needs can and must be settled and resolved by means other than war and violence. Humanity owes it to itself to settle differences and conflicts by peaceful means."⁴ The Episcopal Commission for Social Issues of the Japanese Bishop's Conference, in its statement, Peace and the Japanese Catholic Church Today, in responding to these words of the Pope, made the following comment in reference to the preamble and to article nine of the Japanese Constitution: "The Catholic Church of Japan looks upon this ideal of peace pledged by the Japanese people as a sign of the times. This contribution to peace is the Will of God and therefore, with courage and determination, we should accomplish the task which we have received," noting also that "We cannot measure how great a contribution to world peace it is that one strong country has repudiated war and has renounced the arms race."⁵ What the preamble and clause 9 of the Constitution require of the government is not the establishment of military capacity, but the adoption of a security policy that is grounded in the repudiation of war and in peace diplomacy. The Japanese people can rightly be proud of the fact that for these sixty years of the peace Constitution, Japanese have neither killed nor been killed in warfare.

"To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war. To remember Hiroshima is to commit oneself to peace."⁶ As the only country to have experienced a nuclear attack, Japan has a unique role to play in appealing to the world for the repudiation of nuclear war and far total nuclear disarmament. Further, in face of the idea widely used as a justification for armaments, the idea expressed in the slogan "if you want peace, prepare for war," disarmament and nonviolence must be esteemed over the use of force and it must be understood that dialogue and trust constitute the real means to peace. One example of a valuable step in this direction is a movement of ordinary citizens known as the Non-defended Localities Movement Network, which seeks peace not through armament, but through disarmament. This movement has become active in every area.⁷ Surely this is precisely the kind of thing that Christ taught and what he calls on us to follow.

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation. No longer will they learn how to make war,”⁸ "Put your sword away, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."⁹ "Arms and war are, in a word, to be excluded form civilization's programs. Judicious disarming is another weapon of peace."¹⁰ "To attain the good of peace there must be a dear and conscious acknowledgment that violence is an unacceptable evil and that it never solves problems. Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity. Violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity, the life, the freedom of human beings.”¹¹

The peace we seek is not the merely negative peace (the absence of war). Even when there is no war, "situations of non-peace"—situations of structural violence in which people are discriminated against, ostracized, hurt, harmed, still persist. Working to overcome such forms of structural violence as poverty, and working for development, human rights and equality are essential parts of the striving for positive peace. It is precisely through this that we make real in our lives the words "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." ¹²

In light of all this, we, women committed to nurture, sustain and protect all forms of life, make the following commitments:

1. We will strive to preserve clause 9 of the Japanese Constitution repudiating war.
2. We will strive to promote peace not through the application of power but through disarmament and nonviolence, dialogue, and the creation of trust at the level of our personal lives and relationships, at the level of Japanese society, and at a world level.
3. We will work to resist structures of violence that discriminate against and exclude people, that harm people or that cause ecological destruction, and we will work, each in our own given situation, that in political, economic and social policy making, human dignity, human rights and equality are given the highest priority.
4. We will renew the pledge to repudiate war and support the Non-defended Localities Movement Network.
   
   We dedicate this pledge to Christ who in his death overcame hostility and tore down the walls of division. May Christ who is our peace guide us and strengthen us in our efforts for a world of nonviolence.