🇯🇵 Nagasaki Marks 80 Years Since Atomic Bombing, Survivors Urge Nuclear Abolition

 

Eight decades after the U.S. atomic bombing, Nagasaki remembers its dead and renews a global call to make the city the last place on earth to suffer nuclear attack.

Zig Diaries World News
Date: Saturday, 9 August 2025
Time: 16:00 JST
Location: 📍Nagasaki, Japan

Memorials in Nagasaki mark 80 years since the atomic bomb killed 70,000 people, with survivors urging younger generations to continue the fight for a nuclear-free world.

The city of Nagasaki has marked the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic attack that killed an estimated 70,000 people, with survivors vowing to ensure their hometown remains the last place ever bombed with nuclear weapons.

The memorial at Nagasaki Peace Park drew around 2,600 attendees, including representatives from more than 90 countries. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba joined in observing a moment of silence at 11:02 a.m., the exact time the plutonium bomb exploded above the city on August 9, 1945.

After the silence, doves were released as a symbol of peace, followed by a speech from Mayor Shiro Suzuki, whose parents survived the bombing. He called Nagasaki’s memory a “common heritage” that must be passed down to future generations. “We will go hand-in-hand with global citizens toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of everlasting world peace,” Suzuki said.

The number of surviving hibakusha has fallen to 99,130, with an average age over 86. Concerned about fading memories, survivors are turning to younger generations to keep their stories alive. At a peace forum the previous day, 90-year-old survivor Seiichiro Mise handed out seeds of “flowers of peace” to more than 300 young participants.

Survivors voiced frustration over Japan’s refusal to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, citing the government’s reliance on U.S. nuclear deterrence. In his address, Ishiba pledged to promote dialogue between nuclear and non-nuclear states ahead of the 2026 Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, but made no mention of the nuclear ban treaty.

The bombing of Nagasaki came just three days after the U.S. dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which killed about 140,000 people. Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, ended World War II and decades of imperial aggression in Asia.

FACT CHECK & BACKGROUND CONTEXT:

• Date of bombing: August 9, 1945
• Death toll: ~70,000 in Nagasaki, ~140,000 in Hiroshima (direct + radiation effects)
• Event significance: Second and last use of nuclear weapons in war
• Survivor count: 99,130 as of August 2025, avg. age 86+
• Treaty status: Japan has not signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, citing security alliance with the U.S.
• Memorial location: Nagasaki Peace Park, site near the bomb’s hypocenter

🏷️ TAGS: Nagasaki, Atomic Bombing, Hiroshima, Nuclear Abolition, Japan, World War II, Shigeru Ishiba, Shiro Suzuki, Hibakusha

#Nagasaki #NuclearFree #Peace #Japan #WWII