Nagasaki, Japan, marks the 80th anniversary of atomic bombing while survivors urge young people to put pressure for the nuclear prohibition
The Japanese southern city of Nagasaki scored on Saturday 80 years since the American atomic attack which killed tens of thousands of people and left survivors who hope that their painful memories will be able to help make their birthplace last place to be struck by a nuclear bomb.
The United States launched the Nagasaki attack on August 9, 1945, killing at least 70,000 people by the end of this year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, which left some 140,000 dead. Japan went on August 15, 1945, ending the Second World War and at almost half a century of aggression by the country across Asia.
About 2,600 people, including representatives of more than 90 countries, attended a commemorative event at the Nagasaki Peace Park, where mayor Shiro Suzuki and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba were among the guests who spoke.
At 11:02 a.m., local time, the exact time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, the participants observed a moment of silence as the bell sounded.
“Even after the end of the war, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror,” said survivor Hiroshi Nishioka, 93, in his speech to the memorial. He added that many of those who had no serious injuries presented symptoms later, including bleeding from their gums and hair loss, before dying.
“Never use nuclear weapons again where we are finished.”
Dozens of doves, symbol of peace, were released after a speech by Suzuki, whose parents are surviving the attack.
He said that the souvenirs of the city on the bombing are “a common heritage and should be transmitted for generations” in Japan and outside Japan.
“The existential crisis of humanity has become imminent for each of us living on earth,” said Suzuki. “In order to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and forever, we are going to go hand in with the citizens of the world and devote our greatest efforts to the abolition of nuclear weapons and to the realization of eternal world peace.”
‘A world without war’
The survivors and their families gathered on Saturday in rainy weather at the Peace Park and a himsiness park nearby, located under the exact detonation of the bomb, a few hours before the official ceremony.
“I am just looking for a world without war,” said Koichi Kawano, an 85 -year -old survivor who has laid flowers with the hyument hypocentre decorated with colorful origami paper cranes and other offerings.
Others prayed in churches of Nagasaki, which house Catholic converts which have gone deep underground during the centuries of violent persecution in the feudal era of Japan.
The twin bells of the Urakami cathedral, which was destroyed in the attack, also struck again after one of the cloches disappeared after the attack was restored by volunteers.
A new pop-up exhibition at the Ottawa City Hall honors victims and survivors of atomic bombs fell on Japan towards the end of the Second World War.
Despite their pain in wounds, discrimination and radiation diseases, survivors have publicly committed to a shared objective of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they are worried that the world moves in the opposite direction.
The aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki have now put their hope of reaching the abolition of nuclear weapons in the hands of young people, telling them that the attack is not a distant story, but a problem that remains relevant for their future.
“There are only two things I want: the abolition of nuclear weapons and the ban on war,” said Fumi Takeshita, an 83 -year -old survivor. “I am looking for a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everyone can live in peace.”
In the hope of transmitting history lessons to current and future generations, Takeshita visits schools to share her experience with children.
“When you grow up and remember what you have learned today, think about what each of you can do to prevent war,” students told Takeshita in a school earlier this week.
Teruko Yokoyama, 83, is vice-president of Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, and declared the growing absence of those she had worked with foods desire to document the lives of others that are still alive.
This total fell to 99,130, about a quarter of the original number, their average age greater than 86.
The survivors are concerned about the discoloration of memories, because the youngest of the survivors were too young to clearly recall the attack.
On Wednesday, Hiroshima marked the 80th anniversary of the American atomic atomic bombing of the Western Japanese city, many aging survivors expressing the frustration of the growing support of world leaders for nuclear weapons as a deterrence.
“We have to keep up registers of atomic damages of survivors and their history for life,” said Yokoyama, the two sisters of which died after suffering from radiation diseases.
Its organization began to digitize the tales of survivors to see YouTube and other social media platforms with the help of a new generation.
“There are young people who are starting to act,” Yokoyama told the Associated Press on Friday. “So I think we don’t have to be depressed yet.”
PM undertakes to promote dialogue
The survivors are frustrated by a growing nuclear threat and support among international leaders to develop or have nuclear deterrent weapons. They criticize the Japanese government’s refusal to sign or even participate in the prohibition of nuclear weapons as an observer because Japan, as an American ally, says that it needs American nuclear possession as a deterrence.
In Ishiba’s speech, the Prime Minister reiterated the pursuit by Japan of a nuclearless world, committing to promote dialogue and cooperation between countries with nuclear weapons and non-nuclear states during the non-proliferation of the nuclear weapons examination conference scheduled for April and May 2026 in New York. Ishiba did not mention the nuclear weapon prohibition treaty.
“Countries must go from words to action by strengthening the global disarmament regime” with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (TNP) in the center, supplemented by the momentum created by the Treaty of Nuclear Weapons, said the Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres, in his message read by the under-secretary general Izumitsu in Nagasaki.
Nagasaki invited representatives of all countries to attend the ceremony on Saturday. The government in China notably informed the city that it would not be present, without providing any reason.
Last year, the ceremony aroused controversy due to the absence of the American ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city refusal to invite officials from Israel.
https://i.cbc.ca/1.7605187.1754748454!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_1180/japan-nagasaki-anniversary.jpg?im=Resize%3D620
About The Author
