Hiroshima Marks 76th Anniversary of US Atomic Bombing
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - On the 76th anniversary of Hiroshima's atomic bombing where 140,000 people perished in a US massacre, the Japanese city's mayor called on world leaders to band together to eradicate nuclear weapons, just as they have in the fight against the coronavirus.
Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to commit to nuclear disarmament as seriously as they tackle a pandemic that the international community recognizes as “threat to humanity.”
"Nuclear weapons, developed to win wars, are a threat of total annihilation that we can certainly end, if all nations work together," said Hiroshima Mayor Kaxumi Matsui on Friday. "No sustainable society is possible with these weapons continually poised for indiscriminate slaughter."
Matsui insisted that Hiroshima would never quit preserving the facts about the massive US-perpetrated carnage as well as its continuing efforts to promote a “worldwide culture of peace.”
"Nuclear weapons are the ultimate human violence. If civil society decides to live without them, the door to a nuclear-weapon-free world will open wide," he said.
The United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb -- dubbed "Little Boy" -- on Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, devastating the entire city and massacring more than 140,000 people. It dropped a second nuclear bomb three days later on the city of Nagasaki, mass-murdering another 70,000 residents.
Despite falling victim to the American use of the atomic bomb, Japan remains among the closest US allies. Moreover, Tokyo has refused to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons along with the world's nuclear-weapon states. Even today, Japan is not allowed to have an independent military force and continues to sit under the US “nuclear umbrella.”
The Hiroshima mayor renewed his demand that his own government "immediately" sign and ratify the treaty and join the discussion, to live up to the long-cherished wish of atomic bombing survivors. He also demanded that Japan provide productive mediation between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states.
Mayor Matsui further urged world leaders to commit to nuclear disarmament as seriously as they tackle the persisting COVID-19 pandemic that the international community recognizes as "threat to humanity."
However, the stockpiling of nuclear weapons continues to this day, with the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, the Israeli regime, India, Pakistan and North Korea in possession of the mass-destructive weapon and refusing to commit to the Nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
