As Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the 72nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings, aging survivors deplored what they called the hypocrisy by the Japanese government following its decision to stay out of a treaty banning nuclear arms.
Despite anger and calls from the survivors urging Japan to join the historic treaty, a world free of nuclear weapons remains elusive as the atomic-bombed nation sticks to a "realistic approach" advocated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The prospect of survivors's wishes being fulfilled had looked brighter when Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima in May last year, when he espoused "a world without nuclear weapons."