Author: Yamaguchi Banri
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) – Hiroshima was reminded on Aug. 6 of the atomic bombing of 77 years ago, when officials including the head of the United Nations warned against an increase in nuclear weapons and amid growing concerns over Russia’s war on Ukraine Such attacks will happen again.
“Nuclear weapons are nonsense. They promise no security — only death and destruction,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who attended prayers at Hiroshima Peace Park.
“Three-quarters of a century later, we have to ask what we’ve learned from the mushroom cloud that swelled over the city in 1945,” he said.
[OnAugust61945theUnitedStatesdroppedtheworld’sfirstatomicbombonHiroshimadestroyingHiroshimaandkilling140000peopleThreedayslateritdroppedasecondbombonNagasakikillinganother70000peopleJapansurrenderedonAugust15endingWorldWarIIandnearlyhalfacenturyofJapaneseaggressioninAsia[1945年8月6日，美國在廣島投下世界上第一顆原子彈，摧毀了廣島，造成14萬人死亡。三天后，它在長崎投下第二顆炸彈，又造成70000人死亡。日本於8月15日投降，結束了第二次世界大戰和日本在亞洲近半個世紀的侵略。
Fears of a third atomic bombing have grown amid Russia’s threat of a nuclear attack since the war against Ukraine began in February.
Guterres said a “crisis with serious nuclear implications is spreading rapidly” in the Middle East and on the Korean peninsula. “We are only one mistake, one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from the end of the world.”
In the peace declaration, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui accused Putin of “using his own people as tools of war to steal the lives and livelihoods of innocent civilians in another country”.
Matsui said Russia’s war on Ukraine is helping to build support for a nuclear deterrent and urged the world not to repeat the mistake of destroying his city nearly eight decades ago.
Participants, including government leaders and diplomats, observed a moment of silence with the bell of peace at 8:15 a.m., the time a U.S. B-29 dropped a bomb on the city. About 400 pigeons were released and are considered a symbol of peace.
Japan’s foreign ministry said Guterres met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after the ceremony and warned of the regress of global nuclear disarmament, stressing the importance of Japan’s leadership in efforts as the only country in the world to suffer a nuclear attack sex.
Kishida escorted Guterres at the Peace Museum, where they each folded an origami crane — a symbol of peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Russia and its ally Belarus were not invited to this year’s peace commemorations. Russia’s ambassador to Japan, Mikhail Galluzin, laid flowers on the park’s epitaph and told reporters that his country would never use nuclear weapons.
Kishida said at the memorial service that the world continues to face the threat of nuclear weapons.
“I must speak out and call on people around the world not to repeat the tragedy of the use of nuclear weapons,” he said. “Japan will move toward a world without nuclear weapons, no matter how narrow, steep or difficult the path may be.”
Kishida, who will hold the G7 summit in Hiroshima next May, said he wanted to share with other G7 leaders his commitment to unite them to protect peace and international order “before the Peace Monument” based on universal values. democracy.
Matsui criticized nuclear-weapon states, including Russia, for failing to take steps despite their commitment to complying with their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“They should not see a world without nuclear weapons as a distant dream, but should take concrete steps to realize it,” he said.
Critics say Kishida’s call for a nuclear-free world is hollow, as Japan remains under the U.S. nuclear umbrella and continues to resist the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Kishida said the current absence of treaties between the United States and other nuclear powers is unrealistic, and Japan needs to bridge the gap between non-nuclear and nuclear powers.
Many blast survivors suffered lasting injury and illness from the blast and radiation exposure, and faced discrimination in Japan.
After more than 20 years, the government began providing medical support to certified survivors in 1968.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as of March, 118,935 survivors, with an average age of over 84, were certified eligible for government medical support.
But many others, including those claiming to be victims of “black rain” outside the initially designated area, remain unsupported.
Older survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha, continue to push for a nuclear ban and hope to persuade younger generations to join the movement.
Guterres had a message for young people: “Finish what the bombers have started. Forward their message. In their name, in their honour, in their memory – we must act.”
