Each year, the Church in Japan holds ten days of prayer for peace, beginning on August 6, the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and concluding on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the world as a violent act of a major power that trampled on the growing efforts of the international community in its search for peace,” the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, Archbishop Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, said in his message for the days of prayer. “The situation continues to unfold without regard for the wishes of so many people who want to protect life and seek peace.”

Archbishop Kikuchi cautioned that “the world is being swept by feelings that peace can be won through violence. But that would only trample on true peace.”