Nagasaki urges break from nuclear deterrence at reduced A-bomb anniversary

Nagasaki's mayor called on nuclear weapons-possessing nations to "show courage" and break free from nuclear deterrence principles on Wednesday at a scaled-down ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the atomic bomb attack on the city held amid a typhoon.

The ceremony at the Nagasaki Dejima Messe conference center was the first since 1963 to take place inside rather than at the city's Peace Park close to the hypocenter where the bomb detonated.

The government of the southwestern Japan city decided to hold the event among organizers only and cancel in-person attendance, including by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and international guests. It was the first Nagasaki ceremony not to be attended by a Japanese leader since 1999.

Takeko Kudo, 85, who delivered the annual commitment to peace, was one of the only atomic bomb survivors at the ceremony.

The nuclear attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, came three days after another atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, western Japan. It is believed to have killed around 74,000 people in the city by the end of the year and left many others suffering its effects for the rest of their lives.

A moment of silence was held at 11:02 a.m., when the plutonium bomb codenamed "Fat Man" was dropped by a U.S. bomber and exploded over the port city. It remains the last place to have suffered a nuclear bombing in wartime.

In his Peace Declaration, Mayor Shiro Suzuki spoke against nuclear deterrence principles, which were reaffirmed at the Hiroshima Group of Seven nations' summit in May, and said nuclear-armed countries and states defended under nuclear umbrellas should "show courage and make the decision to break free from dependence on nuclear deterrence."

The G-7 leaders met an atomic bomb survivor, visited a museum dedicated to the effects of the bombing and released their first-ever document on nuclear disarmament, known as the Hiroshima Vision. It states that as long as nuclear weapons exist, they should "serve defensive purposes, deter aggression and prevent war and coercion."

In referencing heightened nuclear tensions amid threats made over the war in Ukraine, Suzuki said Russia is "not the only state representing the risk of nuclear deterrence."

He called on the Japanese government to "show resolve" toward abolition by signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as quickly as possible.

His comments on deterrence and the treaty echoed those made by the city of Hiroshima in its annual peace declaration on its atomic bomb anniversary three days earlier.

In contrast, Kishida offered commensurate backing for nonproliferation in his pre-recorded video address to the ceremony. "As G-7 chair and a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, Japan will continue to lead the world toward disarmament while calling for it to be united in strengthening and maintaining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," he said.

He also said that Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack in war, will continue to observe its three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons as part of the nation's "unchanging mission" to achieve disarmament.

Under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, Japan has not joined the treaty and instead continues to back the NPT.

First brought into force in 1970, it includes nuclear weapons-possessing nations such as the United States and Russia among its 191 state parties and is intended to stop their spread and achieve disarmament.

Conversely, the ban treaty went into force in 2021 and prohibits any form of engagement with nuclear weapons, including development, stockpiling and use. None of the nuclear-armed states are among the 92 countries to have signed it.

The decision on Sunday to change the venue came amid concerns over the path of Typhoon Khanun. The event has never been canceled since the city government began holding it in 1956, with the 1963 ceremony being the only occasion it was moved indoors due to rain.

Around 40 people, primarily from the city government, were present, in a drastic reversal for an event that was projected to welcome national representatives from a record 85 countries and regions and some 2,400 attendees.

The typhoon has brought widespread disruption to the city and cancellation of other peace-related events. Closures occurred at public elementary and junior high schools and some shinkansen bullet trains in and out of the city were suspended from around 9 a.m.

Government figures current to the end of March showed there were 113,649 officially recognized survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, down 5,346 from the previous year, with their average age standing at over 85.

While 9,350 of them died in fiscal 2022, the decline in the total figure was partially offset by an expansion in recognitions from April 2022 of some individuals exposed to radioactive "black rain" that followed the bombings.

© KYODO