Hiroshima survivors fear rising nuke threat on 80th anniversary
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HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Hiroshima on Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japanese city, with many aging survivors expressing frustration about the growing support of global leaders for nuclear weapons as a deterrence.
With the number of survivors rapidly declining and their average age now exceeding 86, the anniversary is considered the last milestone event for many of them.
“There will be nobody left to pass on this sad and painful experience in 10 years or 20 years,” Minoru Suzuto, a 94-year-old survivor, said after he kneeled down to pray at the cenotaph. “That’s why I want to share (my story) as much as I can.”
The bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city and killed 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and Japan’s nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Mayor says world should have learned from tragedy
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui warned against a growing acceptance of military buildups and of using nuclear weapons for national security during Russia’s war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Mideast, with the United States and Russia possessing most of the world’s nuclear warheads.
“These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said. “They threaten to topple the peacebuilding frameworks so many have worked so hard to construct.”
He urged younger generations to recognize that such “misguided policies” could cause “utterly inhumane” consequences for their future.
Prayers, tributes and hope
About 55,000 people, including representatives from a record 120 countries and regions, including Russia and Belarus, attended the ceremony. A minute of silence was held while a peace bell rang out at 8:15 a.m., the time when a U.S. B-29 dropped the bomb on the city.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the city’s mayor and other officials laid flowers at the cenotaph. Dozens of white doves, a symbol of peace, were released after the mayor’s speech.
Hours before the official ceremony, as the sun rose over Hiroshima, survivors and their families started paying tribute to the victims at the Peace Memorial Park, near the hypocenter of the nuclear blast 80 years ago.
Kazuo Miyoshi, a 74-year-old retiree, came to honor his grandfather and two cousins who died in the bombing and prayed that the “mistake” will never be repeated.
“We do not need nuclear weapons,” Miyoshi said.
“There is hope,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement read by Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, noting Nihon Hidankyo’s Nobel Peace Prize and countries’ re-commitment to a nuclear free world in “the Pact for the Future” adopted last year.
Visitors offer flowers at the Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph during the ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, on Wednesday. (AP photo)
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Associated Press video journalist Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.