Hiroshima Marks 77th Anniversary Of Nuke Bombing As China Threats Intensify

Hiroshima on Saturday, August 6, 2022, marked the 77th anniversary of its atomic bombing by the US, amid heightened concern in Japan and elsewhere over repeated Russian threats to resort to nuclear weapons amid the war in Ukraine, Reito Kaneko reported for Kyodo News.

Photo Insert: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents a constituency in Hiroshima, decried in his remarks the apparently declining momentum toward a world without nuclear weapons, calling on humanity not to repeat the tragedy of nuclear weapons use.

Mayor Kazumi Matsui cautioned in a Peace Declaration at a memorial ceremony in the western city that even as civilian lives are being lost in the Russian aggression, reliance on nuclear deterrence is gaining momentum around the world.

"We must immediately render all nuclear buttons meaningless," he said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was also present at the annual ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park near ground zero, becoming the first UN chief to attend since his predecessor Ban Ki Moon in 2010.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents a constituency in Hiroshima, decried in his remarks the apparently declining momentum toward a world without nuclear weapons, calling on humanity not to repeat the tragedy of nuclear weapons use.

The prime minister said Japan will work to connect the "reality" of a deteriorating security environment and the "ideal" of a world without nuclear weapons.

With Hiroshima set to host the summit meeting of the Group of Seven nations next May, Kishida said he and the other leaders will pledge in front of a monument symbolizing peace to work together to safeguard universal values.

A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., the exact moment that a uranium bomb dropped from a US bomber detonated over the city on Aug. 6, 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of the year.

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