IranPress/Asia: Hiroshima marked the 73rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Monday, with its mayor making a fresh call for a world without nuclear weapons through dialogue but stopping short of explicitly urging Japan to join a global nuclear weapons ban treaty.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui made a fresh call for a world without nuclear weapons through dialogue.
Despite some expectations of progress toward nuclear disarmament in recent years, Mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of the re-emergence of tensions over nuclear weapons seen during the Cold War and urged global leaders to act sensibly and rationally.
"If the human family forgets history or stops confronting it, we could again commit a terrible error," Matsui said at a memorial ceremony to remember the atomic bombing.
Japan needs to lead the international community toward "dialogue and cooperation for a world without nuclear weapons," the mayor added.
At the Peace Memorial Park, a moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., when the "Little Boy" atomic bomb dropped by a U.S. bomber exploded above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. It killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of that year.
The 73rd anniversary comes after Pyongyang's promise of a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula grabbed attention following a U.S.-North Korean summit in June.
Matsui expressed hope that the easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula will continue through dialogue and called on global leaders to make an international treaty comprehensively prohibiting nuclear weapons. He said this would be a "milestone" toward the goal of ridding the world of all nuclear arsenals.
For years, Japan has relied on U.S. deterrence and did not sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that referred to the suffering of hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors. The pact was adopted in July 2017.
The mayor made the Peace Declaration before representatives from 85 countries and the European Union. The United States sent its ambassador to Japan to the annual ceremony for the first time in three years.
"Certain countries are blatantly proclaiming self-centered nationalism and modernizing their nuclear arsenals, rekindling tensions that had eased with the end of the Cold War," Matsui said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, attending the memorial ceremony, pledged that Japan will try to bridge nuclear powers and non-nuclear states and lead international efforts.
"Maintaining its three non-nuclear principles, our country is determined to make strenuous efforts to serve as a bridge between both parties," Abe said.
Source: Kyodo News Agency
