Japan marks 72 years since atomic bombing, appeals for nuclear disarmament

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TOKYO. KAZINFORM The Japanese city of Hiroshima commemorated on Sunday the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bomb attack that killed hundreds of thousands of people at the end of World War II, with a ceremony where it called for global nuclear disarmament, EFE reports.

The ceremony took place in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park near ground zero, and began at 8:15 am (23.15 GMT Saturday) by observing one minute of silence.

That was the exact time when, on Aug. 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay of the United States Air Force dropped the "Little Boy" - the name given by the US to the first nuclear device used in war - on Hiroshima.

After the minute's silence, the city's mayor, Kazumi Matsui, urged all the world leaders to back the 122-member United Nations Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, the first of its kind at the global level, adopted in July to ban nuclear weapons.

It is time for all governments to strive to move towards a world free of nuclear weapons, said Matsui, who urged the Japanese government, in particular, to manifest the pacifism established by its Constitution and make every effort to facilitate the global adoption of the treaty.

The pact was approved by about two thirds of the UN member countries, although all atomic powers and many of their allies, including Japan, kept out, which casts doubt on the success of the initiative.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe avoided mentioning the treaty directly during his speech, although he stressed the need for both, nuclear powers and other countries, to be involved in the effort to truly pursue a world without nuclear weapons.

"Our country is committed to leading the international community by encouraging both sides to make progress toward abolishing nuclear arms," added Abe.

Representatives of nearly 80 countries and the European Union, including nuclear powers such as the United Kingdom, France, the United States and Russia, witnessed the ceremony.

The UN undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, said that survivors of the Hiroshima disaster send a heroic message to the world and a reminder of the devastating effects of these weapons, in a message read on behalf of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima the same day 72 years ago, exploded with an intensity of about 16 kilotons around 600 meters above the park where the ceremony took place, and killed about 90,000 people instantly.

The death toll rose to 140,000 in late 1945, and in later years the number of radiation victims increased to more than double.

On Aug. 9, 1945, three days after the attack on Hiroshima, the US dropped a second nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki, which led to the Japan's surrender six days later and ended World War II.

The atomic bombings on both the Japanese cities have been the only nuclear attacks in history.

In March 2016, there were a total 164,621 'hibakushas' (bombing survivors, as they are collectively known in Japan) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as compared to 372,264 in 1980, and their average age was 81.41 years.

 

 

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