Japan marked the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with people offering silent prayers for the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives and for those who suffered for decades from the blast and the radioactive fallout that followed.
But the message to create a world of no nuclear weapons from the only country that experienced atomic bombings appears to be losing momentum amid global conflicts, including Russia’s war on Ukraine and tension in the Middle East.
“Eighty years ago today, an atomic bomb went off, costing tens of thousands of precious lives. Those who survived went through agony beyond description,” said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a ceremony in Hiroshima.
“We should never repeat the disaster that Hiroshima and Nagasaki went through ever again,” he said. “It is our country’s mission as the only country to experience atomic bombings to spearhead the move in the international community toward a nonnuclear world while maintaining the three nonnuclear principles” of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons.
But the aging of hibakusha, or survivors of the atomic bombing, makes it harder to pass on the tragedy firsthand. As of the end of March, 99,130 were recognized as hibakusha — the first time the figure dipped below the 100,000 mark — with their average age being 86.13 years old.
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