President George W. Bush
Pennsylvania Ave, NW.,
Washington D.C., 20500, U.S.A.
September 26, 2002
We oppose the US attack on Iraq.
Dear President Bush:
We, as Christians in Japan, pray for peace in the world from the bottom
of our hearts. We also sincerely pray that God will use us as an instrument
of peace and reconciliation.
We join in your prayers and deeply mourn those victims of the September
11 attack. We share in the pain and grief of the bereaved families. At
the same time, however, we also painfully remember with sadness that thousands
of people in Afghanistan were killed by U.S. military strikes under the
name of " War against terrorism " beginning on October 7th last
year.
We believe that any use of violence at the moment will destroy God's creation
- the creation which God said was " good " and will take human
lives, which are created in the image of God. The violence only breeds
more chains of violence and will not bring about peace and real solution
to the problems.
On behalf of National Christian Council in Japan, we declare, as time approaches
the imminent danger of the attack, to oppose the US attack on Iraq that
has been named as the " axis of evil “, regardless of the fact that
it would be a US unilateral attack or on the basis of UN resolutions. If
the US begins to attack Iraq, as we have seen in Afghanistan, we can easily
foresee that many of the civilians, such as women, children and aged people,
will be victimized again. We know that many children in Iraq today have
already died of illness and are suffering from starvation due to the lack
of food, medicine and other basic daily needs caused by US sanctions imposed
since the Persian Gulf War. And also, the US attack on Iraq will threaten
peace and security in the Middle East region which would have an immeasurably
adverse effect upon the world.
We pray and hope that the US will be with people and other countries in
the world seeking together for peace and reconciliation instead of acting
as a police officer of the world from the standpoint of unilateralism.
We pray that you will change your policy of attacking Iraq and will patiently
make an effort to dialogue, in order to bring about peace and reconciliation
with Iraq. May God grant you courage and wisdom not to use violence as
means of solving the problems.
Sincerely,
Ms. Reiko Suzuki
Moderator,
National Christian Council in Japan