Nagasaki mayor warns of nuclear conflict 80 years after Nagasaki

[ad_1] Shaimaa Khalil Tokyo Correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/9fbe/live/0e2c2490-74d7-11f0-b2e1-4fe97438b421.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Reuters Attendees pray for the victims on the day of a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 2025" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> Reuters Attendees at Saturday ceremony

The mayor of Nagasaki has appealed for an finish to the wars raging on this planet on the eightieth anniversary of the US atom bomb assault which destroyed the Japanese metropolis.

"Conflicts world wide are intensifying in a vicious cycle of confrontation and fragmentation," Shiro Suzuki mentioned in a Peace Declaration at a solemn ceremony to mark the occasion.

"If we proceed on this trajectory, we are going to find yourself thrusting ourselves right into a nuclear conflict."

The assault on 9 August 1945, which analysts say hastened the tip of World Conflict Two, killed an estimated 74,000 individuals.

Within the years that adopted many survivors suffered from leukaemia or different extreme unwanted side effects of radiation.

Saturday's ceremony got here just a few days after the commemoration of the primary atomic bombing, which focused the Japanese metropolis of Hiroshima 80 years in the past on 6 August, killing an estimated 140,000 individuals.

The Nagasaki bomb, greater and extra highly effective, worn out entire communities in seconds.

The commemoration within the rebuilt metropolis started with a second of silence.

Nagasaki's twin cathedral bells additionally rang in unison for the primary time because the assault, in a message of peace to the world.

As a part of Saturday's ceremony, water choices have been made in a shifting and symbolic gesture - 80 years in the past victims whose pores and skin was burning after the blast had begged for water.

Right this moment individuals of various generations together with a consultant of the survivors supplied water in a present of respect to those that perished in nuclear hearth.

"On 9 August 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on this metropolis," Suzuki mentioned within the declaration.

"Now, 80 years since that day, who might have presumably imagined that our world would turn into like this? Instantly stop from disputes during which 'pressure is met with pressure'."

Bomb survivor Hiroshi Nishioka, 93, who was simply 3km (1.8 miles) from the spot the place it exploded, instructed the ceremony of the horror he had witnessed.

"Even the fortunate ones [who were not severely injured] step by step started to bleed from their gums and lose their hair, and one after one other they died," he mentioned, as quoted by AFP information company.

"Although the conflict was over, the atomic bomb introduced invisible terror."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/af3a/live/9b086b20-74dd-11f0-992c-e1e1d789c809.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images Bomb survivor, Hiroshi Nishioka, who is very elderly and in a wheelchair, is pushed by another man, while wreaths of flowers are in the background." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP by way of Getty Pictures Hiroshi Nishioka was a youngster when the atom bomb landed on Nagasaki

Nagasaki resident Atsuko Higuchi, 50, instructed AFP it "made her glad" that the town's victims have been being remembered.

"As a substitute of pondering that these occasions belong to the previous, we should keep in mind that these are actual occasions that occurred," she added.

Among the many bloodiest conflicts presently raging on this planet are the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and that between Israel and the Gaza-based group Hamas.

There was controversy final yr when Nagasaki declined to ask Israel to the annual commemoration, citing safety issues.

This yr the mayor mentioned Israel had been invited, in addition to Russia and its ally Belarus which had been shunned since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.