Nagasaki paid tribute to the victims of the US atomic bombing 77 years ago on August 9, and the mayor said that Russia’s war against Ukraine showed the world that another nuclear attack is not just a concern, but “a tangible and current crisis”.
Mayor Tomihisa Taue, in his speech at the Nagasaki Peace Park on Tuesday, said that nuclear weapons can be used as long as they exist and that their elimination is the only way to save the future of humanity.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and threat to use nuclear weapons came just a month after that, and four other nuclear powers pledged in a statement that war should never be fought nuclear, Taue noted.
“This has shown the world that the use of nuclear weapons is not an unfounded fear but a tangible and present crisis,” he said. The belief that nuclear weapons can be possessed not for actual use but for deterrence “is a fantasy, nothing more than a mere hope.”
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The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. He dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II and nearly half a century of Japanese aggression in Asia.
Participants, including diplomats from nuclear powers, observed a moment of silence at 11:02 a.m., the time the bomb exploded over the southern Japanese city on August 9, 1945.
Although Russia last week tried to reverse Putin’s warning, fears of a third atomic bombardment have grown amid threats of nuclear attack by Russia since its war against Ukraine began in February. Russia bombed a Ukrainian city near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant last week.
Japanese officials fear the conflict could encourage China to be even more assertive in East Asia, and the government is pushing to further increase its military capability and spending.
Japan renounces its own possession, production or hosting of nuclear weapons, but as a US ally, Japan hosts 50,000 US troops and is protected by the US nuclear umbrella. Still, Russia’s nuclear threat has led some hawkish lawmakers in the ruling party to also propose the possibility of nuclear sharing with the United States.
Taue said discussions on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation over the past few decades have not been put into practice and confidence in the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has become “tenuous”.
“We must recognize that getting rid of nuclear weapons is the only realistic way to protect the Earth and the future of humanity,” Taue said.
Taue urged the Japanese government to take the lead in pursuing peace diplomacy that is not based on nuclear deterrence.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said: “Although we face a serious security environment, we must follow the history of non-nuclear use and make Nagasaki the last site of nuclear attack.”
As in Hiroshima, Russia and its ally Belarus were not invited to Tuesday’s commemoration in Nagasaki.
As of March, 118,935 survivors are certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the health and welfare ministry. Their average age now exceeds 84 years.
Many bombing survivors have lasting injuries and illnesses as a result of the blasts and radiation exposure and have faced discrimination in Japan. (AP)
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