The mayor of Nagasaki warns 80 years after Nagasaki against the nuclear war

The mayor of Nagasaki called on the end of the wars that rage in the world on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the attack on the American atomic bomb which destroyed the Japanese city.

“Conflicts in the world intensifies in a vicious circle of confrontation and fragmentation,” said Shiro Suzuki in a declaration of peace during a solemn ceremony to mark the event.

“If we continue on this trajectory, we will end up growing in a nuclear war.”

The attack of August 9, 1945, which, analysts, accelerated the end of the Second World War, killed around 74,000 people.

In the years that followed many survivors, suffered from leukemia or other serious side effects of radiation.

The ceremony on Saturday occurred a few days after the commemoration of the first atomic bombardment, which targeted the Japanese city of Hiroshima 80 years ago on August 6, killing around 140,000 people.

The larger and more powerful Nagasaki bomb has erased entire communities in a few seconds.

The commemoration in the rebuilt city began with a moment of silence.

Nagasaki twin bells have also struck in unison for the first time since the attack, in a message of peace in the world.

As part of the ceremony on Saturday, water offers were made in a moving and symbolic gesture – 80 years ago, the victims whose skin burned after the explosion begged water.

Today, participants of different generations, including a survivor representative, offered water in a demonstration of respect to those who have perished in nuclear fire.

“On August 9, 1945, an atomic bomb was abandoned in this city,” said Suzuki in the declaration.

“Now, 80 years since that day, who could have imagined that our world would become like that? These are only disputes in which” strength is encountered with strength “.

The survivor of the Hiroshi Nishioka bomb, 93, who was just 3 km (1.8 mile) from the place where he exploded, the horror ceremony he had witnessed.

“Even the lucky ones (who were not seriously injured) have gradually started bleeding from their gums and losing their hair, and one after the other, they died,” he said, quoted by the AFP news agency.

“Even if the war was over, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror.”

Atsuko Higuchi, 50, a resident of Nagasaki, told AFP that it “made him happy” that the city’s victims were memorized.

“Instead of thinking that these events belong to the past, we must remember that these are real events that have taken place,” she added.

Among the bloodiest conflicts that rage in the world are war between Russia and Ukraine, and that between Israel and the Gaza Hamas group.

There was a controversy last year when Nagasaki refused to invite Israel to annual commemoration, citing security problems.

This year, the mayor said that Israel had been invited, as well as Russia and his ally Bélarus who had been avoided since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022.

An international agreement prohibiting nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, entered into force in 2021.

More than 70 countries have ratified the treaty, but the nuclear powers have opposed it, arguing that their nuclear arsenals act as a means of deterrence.

Japan has also rejected the ban, saying that its security is reinforced by US nuclear weapons.