Nagasaki, Hiroshima Mourn 80th Atomic Bombings Anniversary Amid Fears Of New Nuclear Warfare (Worthy News Radio)
By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
NAGASAKI, JAPAN (Worthy News) – Even the heavens seemed to cry.
In pouring rain, people shed tears for those who died or were injured when, exactly 80 years ago, the U.S. dropped a devastating nuclear bomb on this Japanese city.
The destruction of Nagasaki soon forced Japan to surrender, bringing World War II to a close.
Mayor Shiro Suzuki said armed conflicts “around the world are intensifying in a vicious cycle of confrontation and fragmentation.” In a peace declaration, he warned that, “If we continue on this trajectory, we will end up thrusting ourselves into a nuclear war.”
The attack on August 9, 1945, killed an estimated 74,000 people.
In the years that followed, many survivors had leukaemia or other severe side effects of radiation.
This weekend’s ceremony came a few days after the commemoration of the first atomic bombing, which targeted the Japanese city of Hiroshima 80 years ago on August 6, killing about 140,000 people, according to
historical records.
COMMUNITIES DESTROYED
The Nagasaki bomb, bigger and more powerful, wiped out whole communities in seconds. “I truly wish we can bring the world to peace, with no wars,” said Koichi Kawano, an atomic bomb survivor.
Fumi Takeshita agrees. “I suffered many illnesses (due to the bombing),” she said.
“But I believe I have been partly supported from up above, and perhaps by those who lost their lives. I am approaching 84 years of age and am grateful for that, to be alive,” the woman added.
Pope Leo, the first American pontiff elected earlier this year, also expressed solidarity.
He said he wished to assure his prayers for “all those who have suffered the physical, psychological, and social consequences” of the dropping of the bombs on Nagasaki and earlier Hiroshima.
An international agreement banning nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, came into effect in 2021.
More than 70 countries have ratified the treaty, but nuclear powers have opposed it, arguing their nuclear arsenals act as a deterrent.
There was controversy last year when Nagasaki declined to invite Israel to the annual commemoration, citing security concerns. This year, the mayor said Israel had been invited, as well as Russia and its ally Belarus, which had been shunned since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Despite the mayor’s concerns about nuclear weapons, Japan’s government has rejected a universal ban, arguing that its security is enhanced by nuclear weapons of the U.S., which is now a close ally.
Yet Pope Leo stressed that despite the eight decades which have passed since the bombings, “those tragic events remain a universal warning against the devastation caused by war—and particularly by nuclear weapons.”
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