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In Japan's relief centres and obliterated streets, there is no news of looting or violence, no shouts of blame, no demands for immediate evacuation and coronial inquests. 'Shinto is a nature religion,' says my guide Yoshiko. 'We give thanks to everything we have.'
Many Japanese don't trust officials connected to the nuclear power industry because previous radiation leaks were denied or downplayed. It is difficult for those caught in the current disaster to know how to interpret statements from officials using phrases such as 'acceptable levels of radiation' and 'no immediate threat'.
May I tell you about one refugee whom I met during the 20 years I lived and worked JRS? The story has no happy outcome, indeed far from it. But it may help to communicate some of the feelings that inspire many who accompany the refugees.
Australian poet Tasha Sudan just won the Blake Prize for Religious Poetry, and in October will be ordained in a Zen Buddhist monastery. In simple but evocative language the poem speaks of the Buddha from his son's point of view.
Eureka Street carries many articles about minority groups whose dignity as human beings is not respected. Those who endorse Catholic teaching on sexuality and the value of human life should rejoice when they see this. To insist on the dignity of those most disregarded in our society is a thoroughly Catholic thing to do.
The Black Saturday bushfires had the same relationship to previous fires as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima did to other bombing raids. Defects of communication and organisation, while regrettable and costly, were irrelevant: there's no assured safety for those who live near bushland.
It was easy to find the centre of the blast .. an eternity of razed houses, a stony desert .. dead soil, waiting for rain .. I write home often. My letters are cheerful.
Many Australians still believe US President Harry Truman made the right decision in authorising the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Philosopher Michael Walzer calls it an act of terrorism designed 'to spread fear across a nation and force the surrender of its government'.
Continuing the work of the defunct Canberra Commission, Kevin Rudd's Nuclear Non-Proliferations and Disarmament Commission is re-inventing a wheel that never worked. Preventing freelance scientists from following their career wanderlust is the real challenge in any post-nuclear framework.
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Pedro Arrupe, the Basque Jesuit who worked in Japan and later became the Jesuits' Superior General. He was present at Hiroshima on 6 August 6 1945, the day on which the atomic bomb was dropped.