Hiroshima warns the world: Nuclear weapon threat looms over repeating the tragedy

Hiroshima urged world leaders on Thursday to abolish nuclear weapons amid rising global tensions, marking the city’s 81st anniversary of the American atomic bombing.

Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported that Hiroshima expressed regret over the use of nuclear weapons “as tools of intimidation” in military conflicts, and also addressed the violation of “the overbearing measures taken by major powers” against international law.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, in the “Peace Declaration” read during the annual ceremony commemorating the atomic bombing, said, “Minimizing the brutality of nuclear weapons and accepting the use of force to achieve individual welfare risks a cycle of violent retribution that could ultimately lead to another Hiroshima or Nagasaki.”

Matsui’s warning came after the latest Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference failed to reach a consensus document, and amid ongoing conflicts, including the US-led war on Iran and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The mayor of Hiroshima stated: “You (policymakers) certainly recognize that any use of nuclear weapons would lead to catastrophic damage to humanity, and that nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament can only be addressed through multilateral efforts... You must, I emphasize, realize the need to set an example.”

A minute of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., the exact time when the American bomber “Enola Gay” dropped the uranium bomb that exploded over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of that year.