Japan on Saturday marked 71 years since the city of Hiroshima was destroyed by a United States atomic bomb, as its mayor urged the world to unite in abolishing nuclear weapons.
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In an ideal world, “our legislators would cut back on or eliminate nuclear weapons”, said Peterson.
“The survivors of this atomic bombing – known as the Hibakusha – have pleaded to the world for so many years to abolish nuclear weapons so that no one else will ever suffer the horror and the suffering of what happens when atomic bombs are dropped on civilization”. Six days after the Nagasaki atomic blast, Japan surrendered, effectively ending WWII.
A gathering of lanterns will mark the 71 anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Japanese cities during the Second World War on Saturday.
“In May, for the first time, as US President, Barack Obama visited Hiroshima”.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui called on leaders of the world to “unify and manifest our passion in action”, as he spoke in front of a crowd during the anniversary of the atomic bomb that killed 140,000 people.
Massachusetts Peace Action is organizing an event on the Smith College campus Saturday evening to coincide with the anniversary of the August 6, 1945, bombing.
USA forces dropped another atomic bomb on the southern city of Nagasaki on August 9.
Donald Trump also recently asked a national security expert three times why, since the United States has nuclear weapons, it can’t use them.
In March, there were a total of 174,080 survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compared to 372,264 in 1980, and their average age was 80 years.
Obama offered no apology for the bombings, having insisted he would not revisit decisions made by then president Harry Truman.
North Korea has conducted four nuclear tests, the latest one in January.
The lessons of Hiroshima and the everlasting legacy of the atomic bomb have a distinctly different interpretation as seen through the eyes of current President Obama and Republican hopeful Donald Trump.
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He hoped that Saturday’s vigil would raise awareness about Hiroshima, particularly America’s role, and the horrors of nuclear weaponry. And three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons.
