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Peace


It is not my purpose to debate matters of victory or defeat in war or the pros and cons of policies and ideologies; rather, I grieve at the thought that war causes countless people to lose their husbands or wives, and leaves countless people seeking for lost children or parents. There will be people who are killed without warning, and people who lose everything they own and are turned adrift. There will be youths who are killed without understanding why they had to die. There will be old women who cry, 'I never did anything wrong!' as they perish. There will be children who wonder if they have any relatives left in this world, including their parents and siblings. And there will be housewives who are convinced it is normal to live with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
If you want to realize peace for all humankind, you must make concrete proposals and take the lead translating them into concrete action.
Although a movement calling for a ban on the testing of atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen around the world, it is my wish to go further, to attack the problem at its root. I want to expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons.
"I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.
"Why do I say this? Because we, the citizens of the world, have an inviolable right to live. Anyone who jeopardizes that right is a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster.

 

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