TOKYO, August 6. /TASS/. Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui criticized Russia and its actions in Ukraine during a memorial ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombing but did not name the United States as the country that dropped the bomb on the city.
Matsui began his speech by accusing Russia of allegedly "using nuclear weapons as a tool of intimidation" and criticizing its actions in Ukraine. At first, he did not name Russia, referring to it as a "major power," but later directly mentioned the country and the conflict in Ukraine.
At the same time, as in previous years, the Hiroshima mayor never said that the United States had carried out the 1945 atomic bombing. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also made no mention of the US in her address. She pledged that Japan would continue doing everything possible to advance nuclear disarmament and create a world without nuclear weapons. "We must not stop moving along this path," she stressed. Matsui likewise called for nuclear disarmament and expressed hope that the world would never see a third city suffer an atomic bombing.
Japanese officials generally do not emphasize in public speeches that the United States carried out the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In previous years, Japanese prime ministers and the mayors of both cities also refrained from directly naming the US in their remarks at ceremonies commemorating the tragedy. However, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum presents comprehensive information about the atomic bombings of 1945. Japanese school and university textbooks cover their history in detail as well.
