HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — 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 growing support among global leaders for nuclear weapons possession for 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.
“We don’t have much time left, while we face greater nuclear threat than ever,” Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organization of survivors that won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for its pursuit of nuclear abolishment, said in a statement. “Our biggest challenge now is to change nuclear weapons states that give us cold shoulders even just a little.”
The bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and Japan’s nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Representatives from a record 120 countries and regions, including Russia and Belarus, were expected to attend and observe a minute of silence with the sound of a peace bell at 8:15 a.m., the time when a U.S. B-29 dropped the bomb on the city.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and other officials laid flowers at the cenotaph.
Survivors and their families were expected to start paying tribute to the victims at the peace memorial park around sunrise, hours before the official ceremony.
Kazuo Miyoshi, a 74-year-old retiree, came to pay tribute to his grandfather and two cousins who died in the bombing and prayed that the “mistake” will never be repeated as the cenotaph inscription says. He said nuclear threats have escalated so much recently that “I just hope the situation won’t worsen” a setback from the goal to abolish nuclear weapons. “We do not need nuclear weapons.”
Wednesday’s anniversary comes at a time that possession of nuclear weapons for deterrence is increasingly supported by the international community, including Japan.
President Donald Trump ‘s remark justifying Washington’s attack in June on Iran by comparing it to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the mild response from the Japanese government, disappointed the survivors.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Kosei Mito, a 79-year-old former high school teacher who was exposed to radiation in his mother’s womb. “I don’t think we can get rid of nuclear weapons as long as it was justified by the assailant.”
Japan’s government has rejected the survivors’ desperate request to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or attend its meeting as observers because it is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
Past prime ministers have stressed Japan’s status as the world’s only country to have suffered nuclear attacks and have said Japan is determined to pursue peace, but survivors say it’s a hollow promise.
The Japanese government has only paid compensation to war veterans and their families, even though survivors have sought redress for civilian victims. They have also sought acknowledgment by the U.S. government of its responsibility for the civilian deaths.
