On the 78th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic blast, Japan’s prime minister lashed out at Russian threats to deploy nuclear weapons.
When the United States unleashed atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later, approximately 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki.
“Japan, as the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings in war, will continue efforts towards a nuclear-free world,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a ceremony in Hiroshima.
“The path towards it is becoming increasingly difficult because of deepening divisions in the international community over nuclear disarmament and Russia’s nuclear threat,” he said.
“Given this situation, it is all the more important to bring back international momentum towards realisation of a nuclear-free world,” he said.
“Devastation brought to Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear weapons can never be repeated,” said Kishida, whose family comes from Hiroshima.
Kishida’s comments echoed those of UN chief Antonio Guterres, who issued a statement on the Hiroshima anniversary saying that “some countries are recklessly rattling the nuclear sabre once again, threatening to use these tools of annihilation.”
“In the face of these threats, the global community must speak as one. Any use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable,” Guterres said.
