A DAY TO REMEMBER
Five-year-old Saki Morioki looks at paper lanterns floating along the Motoyasu River in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city, leaving a death toll as high as 300,000.
IT WAS at 8.15am on a clear, sunny day over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, when the bomb bay doors of the American B-29 warplane Enola Gay opened and it dropped its deadly cargo.
A quarter of the city’s 350,000 residents were incinerated in the resulting atomic bomb blast – its mushroom cloud famously captured in a photograph taken by the plane’s rear gunner Bob Caron. The destruction, and a second nuclear attack on Nagasaki, paved the way for the end of the Second World War, with the Japanese surrender following on August 15.
Survivors of the world’s first atomic bombing gathered yesterday in diminished numbers near a blasted dome in the city to mark the 75th anniversary of the attack.
An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller than normal turnout – but the survivors’ message for their own government and other political leaders around the world to do more to ban nuclear weapons was more urgent than ever.
Amid the solemn remembrances at Hiroshima’s peace park, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was confronted by six members of survivors’ groups.
“Could you please respond to our request to sign the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty?” Tomoyuki Mimaki, a member of a major survivors’ group, Hidankyo, implored him. “The milestone 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing is a chance to change course.”
Mr Abe insisted on Japan’s policy not to sign the treaty, vaguely citing a “different approach”, although he added the government shares the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.
Even though Tokyo renounces its own possession, production or hosting of nuclear weapons, Japan is an ally of the USA, hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the US nuclear umbrella. This complicates the push to get Tokyo to sign the treaty adopted in 2017, especially as it steps up its military role amid North Korea’s continuing pursuit of a stronger nuclear programme.
Mr Abe, in his speech at the ceremony, said a nuclearfree world cannot be achieved overnight and it has to start with dialogue, adding: “Japan’s position is to serve as a bridge between different sides and patiently promote their dialogue and actions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.”
As the numbers of survivors dwindle – their average age is about 83 – many nations have bolstered or maintained their nuclear arsenals, and their own government refuses to sign a nuclear weapons ban treaty.
Amid cries of Japanese government hypocrisy, survivors, their relatives and officials marked the 8.15am blast anniversary with a minute of silence.
Could you respond to our request to sign the Prohibition Treaty? Tomoyuki Mimaki, a member of a survivors’ group, questions Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe.