A "peace clock" monument in Hiroshima that counts the number of days since the last nuclear test has been reset after the city learned the United States conducted two subcritical nuclear tests last year.
The number on the clock installed at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was changed from 499 to 209 on Wednesday following revelations that two experiments had been conducted on June 22 and Sept. 16 last year in Nevada.
According to the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, they marked the first such tests under the administration of President Joe Biden and formed part of three successive tests.
The first was conducted in November 2020, under President Donald Trump, when the clock was last reset.
Takuo Takigawa, the director of the museum, said it was "very disappointing" to learn of the U.S. tests "amid a global situation where the risk of nuclear weapons use is a concern."
The 3.1-meter-tall clock was donated to the museum by a pacifist organization in 2001 on the 56th anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing of the city, in the hope of reducing the number of nuclear tests.