Pope voices concern over future energy as he comforts victims of Fukushima disaster
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Pope Francis expressed concern about future energy sources as he comforted victims of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster on Monday, noting a call by Japan’s Catholic bishops to abolish nuclear power outright.
Around 18,000 people died or were classified as missing after the so-called Triple Disaster, when a massive earthquake set off a tsunami – in some places 30 meters high – destroying a wide swath of Japan’s northeastern coast and triggering a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.
Francis listened intently as Toshiko Kato, the head of a Catholic kindergarten in Miyako City, told him: “Along with the rest of the town, my home was swept away by the tsunami.”
Japanese Emperor Naruhito (L) and Pope Francis (R) talk during a meeting at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japan, 25 November 2019. The pope is on a four-day visit to Japan, the first in 38 years and only the second in history. EPA-EFE/JAPAN POOL
Several Japanese Catholic officials at the meeting said Francis had repeatedly expressed a desire to go to see the disaster zone first-hand, but scheduling would not permit the trip so they brought some survivors to Tokyo to meet the pontiff.
Pope Francis attends a meeting for peace at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, 24 November 2019. The pope is on a four-day visit to Japan, which will be the first in 38 years and only the second in history. EPA-EFE/FRANCK ROBICHON
Francis, who is making the first trip by a pontiff to Japan since 1981, used visits over the weekend to the only cities ever hit by atomic bombs – Hiroshima and Nagasaki – to underscore his campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. He reiterated his belief that their possession is indefensibly perverse and immoral and their use a crime against mankind and nature.
