By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-08-06 00:51:38 | Updated at 2026-08-06 07:06:18
6 hours ago
HIROSHIMA – Hiroshima on Aug 6 urged world leaders to abolish nuclear weapons amid rising global tensions, as the city marked the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombing, lamenting that they continue to be used by major powers as “tools of intimidation” in military conflicts.
“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 in the Peace Declaration read during the annual memorial ceremony.
His warning came after the failure of the latest review conference for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to produce a consensus document, and amid ongoing conflicts, including the US-led war on Iran and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Surely you (policymakers) understand that any use of nuclear weapons would inflict catastrophic damage on humanity, and that nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament can only be addressed through multilateral efforts,” he said. “You must surely recognise the imperative to lead by example.”
A moment of silence was observed at 8.15am, the exact time when the uranium bomb was dropped by the US bomber Enola Gay and detonated over the city on Aug 6, 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of 1945.
Debate is growing over whether to rethink the country’s longstanding three principles of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory amid worsening regional security conditions.
In her speech, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan upholds the three non-nuclear principles, and as the only country to have experienced the horror of nuclear devastation in war, has the mission to continue persevering in its efforts to realise a world free of nuclear weapons.
In May, the review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, held once every five years, ended for the third consecutive time without a consensus outcome after a month-long meeting in New York.
Matsui attributed the conference’s lack of progress on “political leaders who place blame on others to justify their own behaviour,” saying their words and actions “shake the foundations of global peace and stability while ignoring the obligations set forth by the NPT.”
Takaichi said that while the review conference proved the realisation of the abolition of nuclear weapons to be difficult, “we must not stop our journey.”
As tensions grow on the international stage, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in a statement that “the norms and guardrails that have helped prevent a nuclear cataclysm are under strain” and that “nuclear sabers are being rattled once again in the name of power and coercion.”
In the statement, read out by Izumi Nakamitsu, UN undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, Guterres called for choosing “dialogue over division, cooperation over confrontation and common security over narrow advantage.”
As the number of hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings, continues to dwindle, Matsui called on younger generations to make the “abolition of nuclear weapons common sense in the international community” and “help create an environment that does not allow policymakers to rely on nuclear deterrence.”
Matsui also urged Japan to participate as an observer in the review conference of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in November.
Japan has not joined the nuclear ban treaty given its reliance on the US nuclear umbrella for deterrence.
Three days after the world’s first-ever nuclear attack decimated Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki in southwestern Japan. Japan surrendered to the Allied forces six days later, marking the end of World War II. KYODO NEWS
