TOKYO-
Nagasaki paid tribute to the victims of the US atomic bombing 77 years ago on August 9, with the mayor saying Russia’s war on Ukraine has shown the world that another nuclear attack is not just a concern but “a tangible and current crisis”.
Mayor Tomihisa Taue, in his speech Tuesday at the Nagasaki Peace Park, said nuclear weapons can be used as long as they exist and eliminating them is the only way to save the future of humanity.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and threat to use nuclear weapons came only a month after it and four other nuclear powers pledged in a declaration that nuclear war would never be waged , noted Taue.
“It showed the world that the use of nuclear weapons is not an unfounded fear but a tangible and present crisis,” he said. The belief that nuclear weapons can be possessed not for actual use but for deterrence “is a fantasy, nothing more than mere hope”.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. He dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II and nearly half a century of Japanese aggression in Asia.
Attendees, including diplomats from nuclear states, observed a minute’s silence at 11:02 a.m. as the bomb exploded over the southern Japanese city on August 9, 1945.
Although Russia last week tried to back down on Putin’s warning, fears of a third atomic bombing have grown amid threats of nuclear attack from Russia since it began its war on Ukraine in february. Last week, Russia bombed a Ukrainian town near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Japanese officials fear that the conflict will encourage China to assert itself even more in East Asia, and the government is pushing to further increase its military capabilities and spending.
Japan renounces its own possession, production, or harboring of nuclear weapons, but as an ally of the United States, Japan hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the American nuclear umbrella. Yet Russia’s nuclear threat has prompted some hawkish ruling party lawmakers to also propose the possibility of nuclear sharing with the United States.
Taue said discussions of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation over the past decades have not been put into practice and that confidence in the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has become “tenuous”. .
“We must recognize that getting rid of nuclear weapons is the only realistic way to protect the Earth and the future of humanity,” Taue said.
Taue urged the Japanese government to show leadership in pursuing peace diplomacy that does not rely on nuclear deterrence.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “Even though we face a harsh security environment, we must continue the history of non-nuclear use and make Nagasaki the last place for nuclear attack.”
As in Hiroshima, Russia and its ally Belarus were not invited to Tuesday’s commemorative event in Nagasaki.
As of March, 118,935 survivors are certified eligible for government medical aid, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Their average age now exceeds 84 years.
Many bombing survivors have lasting injuries and illnesses from the explosions and radiation exposure and have faced discrimination in Japan.