HIROSHIMA MARKS 81ST ANNIVERSARY OF ATOMIC BOMBING

Hiroshima held its annual peace ceremony on Thursday to mark 81 years since the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city. About 50,000 people attended the ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, including representatives from approximately 120 countries and regions. A minute of silence was observed at 8:15 am, the time the bomb was dropped. Mayor Kazumi Matsui used the occasion to criticise major powers for waging wars and for justifying nuclear weapons possession as a deterrence method.

Matsui stated that downplaying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and accepting the use of force "risk cycles of violent retaliation that could ultimately result in another Hiroshima or Nagasaki." He called on political leaders to recognise that nuclear deterrence legitimises violence and pushes the goal of a nuclear-weapons-free world further away. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attended the ceremony for the first time in that role and said Japan will pursue a world where nuclear weapons are never used, operating within the UN's non-proliferation framework. Takaichi stopped short of committing Japan to maintaining its postwar three non-nuclear principles indefinitely.

Survivors have expressed concern about growing international support for nuclear weapons as a deterrent, including from Japan. Takaichi's government has indicated it may review Japan's third non-nuclear principle, which prohibits nuclear weapons being brought into the country, when it compiles new security and defence documents later this year. Takaichi has previously advocated examining whether this principle should be maintained.