Hiroshima’s 80th anniversary commemorated among the concerns of renewed nuclear threats

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.

With the number of survivors down quickly and their average age greater than 86, the birthday is considered the last striking event for many of them.

“There is no one left to go to this sad and painful experience in 10 years or 20 years,” said Minoru Suzuto, a 94 -year -old survivor, after kissing the cenotaph. “This is why I want to share as much as possible.”

The bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroyed the city and killed 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later, Nagasaki killed 70,000. Japan went on August 15, ending the Second World War and Japan, almost half a century of aggression in Asia.

Since then, the Japanese government has paid only veterans and their families, even if the survivors have requested compensation for civilian victims. They also asked for recognition by the United States government of its responsibility for civil death.

About 55,000 people present

The mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, warned against increasing acceptance of military accumulations and the use of nuclear weapons for national security during the Russian war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East, the United States and Russia with most nuclear ogias in the world.

“These developments ignore the lessons that the international community should have learned from tragedies of history,” he said. “They threaten to overthrow peacebuilding executives, so many people have worked so hard to build.”

He urged the young generations to recognize that such “erroneous political” could cause “totally inhuman” consequences for their future.

“We only have a lot of time left, while we are faced with a greater nuclear threat than ever,” said Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of the survivor base who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for its pursuit of nuclear abolition.

About 55,000 people, including representatives of a record of 120 countries and regions, attended the ceremony. A minute of silence took place while a bell of peace resounded at 8:15 am, the moment when an American B-29 dropped the bomb on the city.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Matsui and other officials posed flowers to the cenotaph. Dozens of white doves, symbol of peace, were released after the mayor’s speech.

Near the emblematic dome of the atomic bomb of Hiroshima under high security, more than 200 demonstrators gathered, holding posters and flags bearing messages such as “No Nuke, Stop War” and “Gaza Libre! No more genocide” while singing slogans.

Japan is not signatory to the nuclear treaty

A few hours before the official ceremony, when the sun rose on Hiroshima, the survivors and their families began to pay tribute to the victims of the Peace Memorial Park, near the center of the nuclear explosion 80 years ago.

Kazuo Miyoshi, a 74-year-old retiree, came to honor his grandfather and his two cousins who died in the attack and prayed that “error” is never repeated.

“We don’t need nuclear weapons,” said Miyoshi.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement read during the ceremony. Guterres stressed the importance of advancing the testimony and the message of peace of survivors.

“There is hope,” said Guterres. The declaration noted the Nobel Peace Prize in Nihon Hidankyo and the commitment of countries to a nuclear free world in its future pact, an international agreement adopted last year.

In the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV said on Wednesday that he prayed for those who had undergone physical, psychological and social effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, adding that the event remains “a universal warning against devastation caused by wars and, in particular, by nuclear weapons”.

The Japanese government has rejected the survivors’ request to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or attend its meetings as observers because it is under the protection of the US nuclear aegis.

Matsui, the mayor of the city, in his speech on Wednesday, urged the Japanese government to sign and ratify the ban on nuclear weapons, a request also made by several groups of survivors during their meeting with Ishiba after the ceremony.

Ishiba, in a speech, reiterated his government’s commitment to work towards a world without nuclear weapons, but he did not mention the treaty and again indicated the support of his government to the possession of nuclear weapons for deterrence.

At a press conference later Wednesday, Ishiba justified Japan’s dependence on American nuclear deterrence, saying that Japan, which follows a non -nuclear principle, is surrounded by neighbors who have nuclear weapons. The position, he said, does not contradict the pursuit by Japan of a nuclearless world.

The former prime ministers underlined Japan’s status as the only country in the world to have undergone nuclear attacks and said that Japan was determined to continue peace, but the survivors say that it is a hollow promise.