INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pope Francis has demanded world leaders scrap nuclear weapons, insisting the arms race decreases security, wastes resources and threatens
humanity with catastrophic destruction.He was speaking in Nagasaki at ground zero of the second of the two 1945 US atomic bombings on
Japan.After laying a wreath of flowers and praying in the rain at the foot of the memorial to the victims, Pope Francis said the place
stands as a stark reminder "of the pain and horror that we human beings are capable of inflicting upon one another".Image:The pontiff met
the widow and son of the American military photographer who shot this famous image"Convinced as I am that a world without nuclear weapons is
possible and necessary, I ask political leaders not to forget that these weapons cannot protect us from current threats to national and
international security."The pontiff visited Nagasaki - and later Hiroshima - at the start of his three-day trip to Japan aimed at
emphasising his call for a global ban on atomic weapons.Image:Pope Francis held a mass in NagasakiHe added: "Peace and international
stability are incompatible with attempts to build upon the fear of mutual destruction or the threat of total annihilation."They can be
achieved only on the basis of a global ethic of solidarity and cooperation."In a world where millions of children and families live in
inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of ever
more destructive weapons, are an affront crying out to heaven."Image:Thousands of people greeted the pontiff at Nagasaki Baseball Stadium
where the mass took placeSeveral years ago, Pope Francis was given a photograph of a Nagasaki boy carrying his dead baby brother on his back
en route to a crematorium after the bombing.He has since distributed tens of thousands of copies of the photo, with the words "The fruit of
war" printed on them.Image:One woman in the stadium wore a flag bearing the coat of arms of the popeA poster-sized version of the photo was
displayed at the memorial, and he met the widow and son of the American military photographer who shot it, Joe O'Donnell.The first US atomic
bombing on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 killed 140,000 people, and the second one dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed another 74,000
by the end of the same year.Many of the survivors have suffered the lasting impact of radiation and developed various forms of cancer.
