Pope Francis Urges World To Ban Nuclear Weapons On 75th Anniversary Of Hiroshima Bombing

All countries around the globe should abandon nuclear weapons, Pope Frances said on Thursday during a speech marking the 75th anniversary of the US' nuclear attack on Japan's Hiroshima, calling the possession of any nuclear warfare tools immoral

VATICAN CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2020) All countries around the globe should abandon nuclear weapons, Pope Frances said on Thursday during a speech marking the 75th anniversary of the US' nuclear attack on Japan's Hiroshima, calling the possession of any nuclear warfare tools immoral.

"The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral ... All people need to lay down the weapons of war, and especially the most powerful and destructive weapon: nuclear arms that can cripple and destroy whole cities, whole countries," the pontiff said, as quoted by the Holy See's Vatican news portal.

On August 6, 1945, the United States Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing approximately 140,000 people, and three days later detonated another bomb over Nagasaki, killing up to 80,000 people. The use of the atomic bombs effectively concluded World War II and the attacks on the two Japanese cities have been the only instances of the use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

The Vatican is a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally-binding agreement that calls for fully abandoning nuclear weapons, and has been calling on other countries to join the agreement.