Nagasaki on Saturday sounded an alarm over the growing risk of nuclear conflict as the city marked 80 years since the U.S. atomic bombing, calling on the world to heed the lessons of history and ensure it remains the last place to endure such destruction.
"This existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth," Mayor Shiro Suzuki said in the Peace Declaration during the annual memorial at Nagasaki Peace Park. He described the world as trapped in a "vicious cycle of confrontation and fragmentation" and urged global leaders to present concrete steps toward eliminating nuclear weapons.
Suzuki praised the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Nihon Hidankyo for inspiring peace efforts across borders, asking, "Is it not this 'global citizen' perspective that will serve as the driving force behind stitching back together our fragmented world?"
At 11:02 a.m., a moment of silence was observed—the exact time in 1945 when the plutonium bomb "Fat Man" was dropped, devastating the port city just days after Hiroshima’s bombing.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba reaffirmed Japan’s long-standing policy of not possessing, producing, or allowing nuclear weapons, pledging to work toward "a world without nuclear war and a world without nuclear weapons." He avoided mention of the 2021 U.N. nuclear ban treaty, despite renewed calls for Japan to join.
Around 2,600 attendees, including representatives from 94 countries and the EU, gathered near the hypocenter. Unlike last year, when controversy arose over Israel’s exclusion, invitations were sent to all nations with diplomatic ties to Japan.
Founded in Nagasaki in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo campaigns for a nuclear-free world through survivor testimony. Suzuki recalled the 1982 U.N. speech by survivor Senji Yamaguchi, who pleaded, "No more hibakusha" while showing his burn scars from the bombing.
The “nuclear taboo” forged by survivors is now challenged by Russia’s nuclear threats in its war on Ukraine, Middle East tensions, and growing reliance on nuclear deterrence. Japan, while advocating abolition, remains under the U.S. nuclear umbrella amid China’s military rise and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
In a statement read on his behalf, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that "peace and security cannot be achieved through an arms race" and urged stronger disarmament efforts centered on the nonproliferation treaty, supported by the nuclear ban treaty.
Despite intermittent rain, survivors and activists visited memorial sites. Survivor Fumi Takeshita, 83, who has battled multiple cancers, said, "They are not like ordinary weapons, they come with radiation, and once it's taken into the body, it never leaves."
At 11:02 a.m., Urakami Cathedral’s twin bells rang together for the first time in eight decades. One bell survived the blast, while the other was restored this year in a project led by James Nolan Jr., whose grandfather worked on the Manhattan Project.
The Aug. 9, 1945, attack killed an estimated 74,000 people in Nagasaki by year’s end, with many others suffering long-term effects. Japan’s surrender on Aug. 15 ended World War II.
