The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Wednesday commemorated the victims of the atomic bombing 80 years ago, as global concerns over the threat of nuclear conflict continue to grow.
At a ceremony marking the anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on August 6, 1945, Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged younger generations to continue the fight against nuclear weapons.
Matsui stressed that younger generations must understand how misguided decisions on military spending, national security, and nuclear armament can lead to inhumane consequences.
At 8:15 a.m. – the moment when the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped the first wartime atomic bomb, known as “Little Boy” – attendees observed a minute of silence.
Tens of thousands of Hiroshima residents were killed instantly.
Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
Japan surrendered shortly afterwards.
By the end of 1945, an estimated 140,000 people had died.
Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyō, a Japanese organisation representing survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, in recognition of its efforts toward a nuclear-free world.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in a statement that the risk of nuclear conflict is once again on the rise.
The same weapons that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he said, are now being used as tools of political pressure.
