Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: When war clouds are hovering around because of China and the US flexing military and diplomatic muscles on Taiwan and Japan also bracing for any eventuality in the Far East, Tokyo observed August 6 as a grim reminder of the world’s first-ever nuclear attack on Hiroshima on this day.
Saturday marked the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in the final days of the Second World War in 1945.
The US dropped another atomic bomb on August 9 on Nagasaki to close the war.
A moment of silence was observed at 8.15 AM, the exact moment when an atomic bomb dropped from a US bomber detonated over the city on August 6, 1945, killing around 140,000 people by the end of the year and exposing many more to harmful radiation, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported.
At a memorial ceremony held at the Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui cautioned in the Peace Declaration that dependence on nuclear deterrence is gaining momentum in the world.
“We must immediately render all nuclear buttons meaningless,” he said.
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, representatives from 99 countries, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the first chief of the world body to attend the event in 12 years, were also present.
In his speech, Guterres warned that a new arms race is speeding up.
PM Kishida said, ” Japan will pursue this goal despite global security tensions and while following the three principles of not possessing, producing, or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into the country.”
Over 3,000 Japanese citizens also attended the ceremony, a substantial increase in the crowds than in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials placed a list of victims of the bombing back in a cenotaph, following the addition of the names of 4,978 people who died or were confirmed dead over the past year.
The total now stands at 333,907.
The average age of atomic bomb survivors is now more than 84.