Nagasaki commemorates bombing

Mayor, survivors plead for world to take note

NAGASAKI, Japan — The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday marked its 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, with the mayor and the dwindling number of survivors urging world leaders, including their own, to do more for a nuclear weapons ban.

At 11:02 a.m., the moment the

B-29 bomber Bockscar dropped a 4½-ton plutonium bomb dubbed “Fat Man,” Nagasaki survivors and other participants stood in a minute of silence to honor more than 70,000 dead.

The Aug. 9, 1945, bombing came three days after the United States dropped its first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima, the world’s first ever nuclear attack, which killed 140,000. On Aug. 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II.

At the event at Nagasaki Peace Park, scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Tomihisa Taue read a peace declaration in which he raised concern that nuclear states had in recent years retreated from disarmament efforts.

Instead, they are upgrading and miniaturizing nuclear weapons for easier use, he said. Taue singled out the U.S. and Russia for increasing risks by scrapping the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

He said that “the true horror of

nuclear weapons has not yet been adequately conveyed to the world at large” despite efforts by atomic bombing survivors, to make Nagasaki the last place of the tragedy.

He also urged Japan’s government and lawmakers to quickly sign the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

After taking part in the ceremony, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe criticized the treaty for not being realistic. None of the nuclear states have joined, and it is not widely supported even by non-nuclear states, he said.

Abe has repeatedly refused to sign the treaty. He reiterated that Japan’s approach is not to take sides but to serve as a bridge between nuclear and non-nuclear states to encourage dialogue to achieve a total nuclear ban. Survivors and pacifist groups say Japan is virtually siding with the U.S. and other nuclear states.

While Tokyo renounces its own possession, production or hosting of nuclear weapons, as a U.S. ally, Japan hosts 50,000 American troops and is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

Takuto Kaneko The Associated Press A man and his daughter pray Sunday for the victims of U.S. atomic bombing during World War II at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park in Nagasaki, Japan. Nagasaki marked the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb blast on Sunday.