Nagasaki mayor on anniversary: Need N-ban pact

The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Monday commemorated the 76th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with the mayor calling for the global community to build on a new nuclear ban treaty.

Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno that killed 74,000 people, three days after the nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima. The twin attacks rang in the nuclear age and gave Japan the bleak distinction of being the only country to be struck by atomic weapons.

Survivors and a handful of foreign dignitaries offered a silent prayer at 11.02am local time, the exact time the second - and last - nuclear weapon used in wartime was dropped.

For a second year, the number of people attending was much smaller due to coronavirus restrictions. The ceremony is the first since an international treaty banning nuclear weapons came into force last year.

“World leaders must commit to nuclear arms reductions and build trust through dialogue, and civil society must p them in this direction,” Na aki mayor Tomihisa Taue s

The treaty has not b signed by countries nuclear arsenals, but acti believe it will have a gra deterrent effect.

Japan has not signed it eit saying the accord carrie weight without buy-in f nuclear-armed states. country is also in a deli position as it is under the nuclear umbrella, with US ces responsible for its defe

“As the only country that suffered atomic bombings ing the war, it is our unch ing mission to steadily adv the efforts of the internati community, step by s towards realisation of a w free of nuclear weapons,” J nese Prime Minister Yoshi Suga said at the ceremony.

On Friday, Japan marke years since the US dropped world’s first atomic bom Hiroshima, killing aro 140,000 people. Barack Ob became the first US preside visit Hiroshima in 2016, Washington has never acce to demands for an apolog the bombings.