EIGHTY-ONE YEARS AGO:
The city mayor criticized leaders for justifying nuclear arms as a deterrent, while PM Sanae Takaichi backed ‘a realistic approach’
Hiroshima yesterday marked the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the western Japanese city, with its mayor criticizing major powers for waging wars and urging them to stop justifying the possession of nuclear weapons as a method of deterrence.“Downplaying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and accepting the use of force to pursue one’s own prosperity risk cycles of violent retaliation that could ultimately result in another Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said.Too many political leaders still consider nuclear deterrence a realistic approach and legitimize violence, which “simply pushes a world without nuclear weapons further into the distance,” Matsui said in his peace declaration at the ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
People pray before the cenotaph at the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan yesterday.
He also called on each citizen to learn lessons from the past and take action.About 50,000 people, including representatives from Taiwan, the US and Iran, and about 120 other countries and other regions attended the ceremony.
