Japan’s Nagasaki on Saturday marked the 80th anniversary of the US atomic bomb dropped on the civilian population during the Second World War.
The city’s mayor, at the Peace Park, warned that humanity was facing an “imminent existential crisis” due to ongoing wars.
On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped the second nuclear bomb, called “Fat Man”, on the civilian population of Nagasaki.
The city’s mayor, Shiro Suzuki, while marking the anniversary, said: “Humanity is facing an imminent existential crisis,” warning that the world is plagued by a “vicious cycle of confrontation and fragmentation.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also said that his country would never seek to acquire nuclear weapons, considering the devastation these arms cause to the human race.
He said his government would “continue to support global efforts to bring about a world without nuclear war and a world without nuclear weapons.”
According to reports, around 3,000 people, including representatives from 94 countries and regions, attended the ceremony at Nagasaki Peace Park on Saturday.
A special invitation was extended to Russia and Israel this year, as both countries were not invited in 2024 due to the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Hiroshima also marked the 80th anniversary of the US dropping an atomic bomb on the city.
Japan remains the only nation in history to have suffered two back-to-back nuclear attacks in 1945.
The country endured catastrophic consequences as a result of the bombings; according to international accounts, in Hiroshima alone around 140,000 people were killed, while 74,000 perished from the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
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