Nagasaki marks 80th A-bomb anniv. as survivors put hopes of nuke ban in hands of youth
The United States launched the Nagasaki attack on Aug. 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country's nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.
About 2,600 people, including representatives from more than 90 countries, attended a memorial event at Nagasaki Peace Park, where Mayor Shiro Suzuki and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke, among other guests. At 11:02 a.m., the exact time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, participants observed a moment of silence as a bell rang.
Nagasaki pledges to be the last atomic bombing site
Dozens of doves, a symbol of peace, were released after a speech by Suzuki, whose parents are survivors of the attack. He said the city's memories of the bombing are "a common heritage and should be passed down for generations" in and outside Japan.
"The existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth," Suzuki said. "In order to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and forever, we will go hand-in-hand with global citizens and devote our utmost efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of everlasting world peace."
Praying for nuclear abolition and no war
Survivors and their families gathered Saturday in rainy weather at Peace Park and nearby Hypocenter Park, located below the bomb's exact detonation spot, hours before the official ceremony.
"I simply seek a world without war," said Koichi Kawano, an 85-year-old survivor who laid flowers at the Hypocenter monument decorated with colorful paper cranes and other offerings.
Some others prayed at churches in Nagasaki, home to Catholic converts who went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution in Japan's feudal era.
The twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed in the bombing, also rang together again after one of the bells that had gone missing following the attack was restored by volunteers.
Despite their pain from wounds, discrimination and illnesses from radiation, survivors have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they worry about the world moving in the opposite direction.
Survivors put their hopes in younger hands
Aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki now put their hopes of achieving nuclear weapons abolition in the hands of younger people, telling them the attack is not distant history, but an issue that remains relevant to their future.
"There are only two things I long for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and prohibition of war," survivor Fumi Takeshita said. "I only see a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everyone can live in peace."
In hopes of passing on the lessons of history, Takeshita visits schools to share her experience with children.
"When you grow up and remember what you learned today, please think what each of you can do to prevent war," Takeshita, 83, told students during a school visit earlier this week.
Teruko Yokoyama, an 83-year-old member of a Nagasaki organization supporting survivors, said she feels the absence of those she has worked, which fuels her strong desire to document the lives of remaining survivors.
The number of survivors has fallen to 99,130, about a quarter of the original number, with their average age exceeding 86. Survivors worry about fading memories, as the youngest of the survivors were too young to recall the attack clearly.
"We must keep records of the atomic bombing damages of the survivors and thier lifetime story," said Yokoyama, whose two sisters died after suffering illnesses linked to radiation.
Her organization has started to digitalize the narratives of survivors for viewing on YouTube and other social media platforms with the help of a new generation.
"There are younger people who are beginning to take action," Yokoyama told The Associated Press on Friday. "So I think we don't have to get depressed yet."
Nagasaki hosted a "peace forum" on Friday where survivors shared their stories with more than 300 young people from around the country. Seiichiro Mise, a 90-year-old survivor, said he is handing seeds of "flowers of peace" to the younger generation in hopes of seeing them bloom.
Japan's security dilemma
Survivors are frustrated by a growing nuclear threat and support among international leaders for developing or possessing nuclear weapons for deterrence. They criticize the Japanese government's refusal to sign or even participate in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because Japan, as an American ally, needs U.S. nuclear possession as deterrence.
In Ishiba's speech, the prime mininister reiterated Japan's pursuit of a nuclear-free world and pledged to promote dialogue and cooperation between countries with nuclear weapons and non-nuclear states at the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons review conference scheduled for April and May 2026 in New York City. Ishiba, however, did not mention the nuclear weapons ban treaty.
Nagasaki invited representatives from all countries to attend the ceremony Saturday. China notably notified the city it would not be present without providing a reason.
The ceremony last year stirred controversy due to the absence of the U.S. ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city's refusal to invite Israel.
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The Mainichi
6 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Her voice long-stifled in US-occupied Okinawa, Nagasaki A-bomb survivor speaks out
NAHA -- "I had no choice but to stay silent." In Tomoko Oshiro's calm words, the deep loneliness of the past was unmistakable. Oshiro, 84, who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and now resides in Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture, has lived in Okinawa since the year after World War II ended. Under U.S. rule until 1972, Okinawa lagged behind the Japanese mainland in providing support for hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors. For many years, Oshiro did not speak about her experiences. What changed that was her connection with other hibakusha on the island. Oshiro was born in Osaka to her father Chiyu Bise (who died in 2004 at age 93) from the Okinawa prefectural capital Naha, and mother Sachiko (who died in 2006 at age 95). In the spring of 1945 Oshiro moved to the Motoharamachi district of Nagasaki to live with her paternal grandmother. She was 4 years old at the time. The family of five included her 1-year-old brother. At 11:02 a.m. on Aug. 9, while Oshiro was playing at home with her grandmother and brother, the ceiling collapsed onto her head. The A-bomb had exploded, and Oshiro was only about 1.3 kilometers from the hypocenter. "Tomo-chan, Tomo-chan." She heard her mother's voice as she returned from a friend's house, and Oshiro desperately shouted "Help me!" from under the rubble. Her mother, herself burned, rescued Oshiro and carried her to a first-aid station. According to her mother's memoir, her grandmother was blown off her feet by the blast and died despite efforts to save her life. Oshiro's baby brother, who was on his grandmother's back, was killed instantly, crushed against an earthen wall. In 1946, the family moved to Okinawa. Her parents made a living as geta sandal makers and welders. Many atomic bomb survivors in Okinawa worked on bases belonging to the U.S. military, which had dropped the bomb. The need to survive made hibakusha reluctant to speak. Taeko Kiriya, an associate professor of peace studies at Tama University in Tokyo who conducted interviews in Okinawa from 2019 to 2022, noted, "Many survivors said they hid their status because they feared losing their jobs if people found out." On the Japanese mainland, the 1957 atomic bomb medical law required the national government to pay for health checkups and medical expenses for hibakusha. But Okinawa was excluded. A survey of survivors in Okinawa began in 1963, and the Ryukyu government (as it was then) started issuing survivor health handbooks in 1967 -- 10 years later than on the mainland. It was only through these long-awaited checkups that they discovered glass fragments still embedded in Oshiro's mother's body. When Oshiro graduated from high school, relatives in east Japan's Kanto region warned her, "Never tell anyone you're a hibakusha. It will affect your chances of marriage." She obeyed, thinking, "If I'm going to be discriminated against, I have no choice but to stay silent." The first time she confided in someone outside her family was in her late 20s, to a man she had met at work, whom she would later marry. Worried about the effects of radiation, she told him, "I can't have children." Even so, she became pregnant at 25 and raised a daughter. In her 40s, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and uterine fibroids. She never consulted colleagues or those close to her. "The atomic bomb was something that happened on the mainland. People in Okinawa wouldn't understand how survivors feel," she thought. She also felt guilty for not knowing or being able to talk about the suffering of the Okinawan people, a quarter of whom died in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. A turning point came about 25 years ago. After reaching retirement age and settling into a quieter life, she joined the Okinawa Prefecture hibakusha association, the only such group in the prefecture. At general meetings and health checkups, survivors from across the Okinawan archipelago would gather. There, she could share feelings she had never spoken about, including her thoughts on the atomic bombing and the Battle of Okinawa. "I enjoyed talking with everyone," she said, recalling the encouragement she felt. Eight years ago, her only daughter was diagnosed with bile duct cancer and died at age 50. "Was my daughter's cancer my fault?" Oshiro wondered. It was her fellow association members who helped ease her deep sense of guilt. In the early 1980s, there were more than 350 hibakusha living in Okinawa. As of April 2025, only 68 remained. At the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, the Cornerstone of Peace bears the names of those who perished in the Battle of Okinawa and local atomic bomb survivors, including Oshiro's parents. When she visited the monument in June, she traced their names with her hand and said, "Dad, Mom, I'm doing well." Since 2020, Oshiro has served as president of the survivors' association. She says she is only able to speak out now thanks to the community built by earlier generations of hibakusha. "I hope people will not forget the journey of hibakusha on the (Okinawa) islands who lived far from the bombed cities," she said.
Japan Today
10 hours ago
- Japan Today
Restored Nagasaki bell rings in 80 years since A-bomb
Doves fly past the "Peace Statue" after being released into the air during the annual memorial ceremony at the Peace Park in Nagasaki on August 9, 2025 By Mathias CENA Twin cathedral bells rang in unison Saturday in Japan's Nagasaki for the first time since the atomic bombing of the city 80 years ago, commemorating the moment of horror. On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 am, three days after a nuclear attack on Hiroshima, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. After heavy downpours Saturday morning, the rain stopped shortly before a moment of silence and ceremony in which Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki urged the world to "stop armed conflicts immediately". "Eighty years have passed, and who could have imagined that the world would become like this? A crisis that could threaten the survival of humanity, such as a nuclear war, is looming over each and every one of us living on this planet." About 74,000 people were killed in the southwestern port city, on top of the 140,000 killed in Hiroshima. Days later, on August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, marking the end of World War II. Historians have debated whether the bombings ultimately saved lives by bringing an end to the conflict and averting a ground invasion. But those calculations meant little to survivors, many of whom battled decades of physical and psychological trauma, as well as the stigma that often came with being a hibakusha. Ninety-three-year-old survivor Hiroshi Nishioka, who was just three kilometers from the spot where the bomb exploded, told ceremony attendees of the horror he witnessed as a young teenager. "Even the lucky ones (who were not severely injured) gradually began to bleed from their gums and lose their hair, and one after another they died," he recalled. "Even though the war was over, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror." Nagasaki resident Atsuko Higuchi told AFP it "made her happy" that everyone would remember the city's victims. "Instead of thinking that these events belong to the past, we must remember that these are real events that took place," the 50-year-old said. On Saturday, 200-300 people attending mass at Nagasaki's Immaculate Conception Cathedral heard the two bells ring together for the first time since 1945. One of them, 61-year-old Akio Watanabe, said he had been waiting since he was a young man to hear the bells chime together. The restoration is a "symbol of reconciliation", he said, tears streaming down his face. The imposing red-brick cathedral, with its twin bell towers atop a hill, was rebuilt in 1959 after it was almost completely destroyed in the monstrous explosion just a few hundred meters away. Only one of its two bells was recovered from the rubble, leaving the northern tower silent. With funds from U.S. churchgoers, a new bell was constructed and restored to the tower, and chimed Saturday at the exact moment the bomb was dropped. The cathedral's chief priest, Kenichi Yamamura, told AFP "it's not about forgetting the wounds of the past but recognizing them and taking action to repair and rebuild, and in doing so, working together for peace". He also sees the chimes as a message to the world, shaken by multiple conflicts and caught in a frantic new arms race. Nearly 100 countries were set to participate in this year's commemorations, including Russia, which has not been invited since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Israel, whose ambassador was not invited last year over the war in Gaza, was in attendance. An American university professor, whose grandfather participated in the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear weapons, spearheaded the bell project. During his research in Nagasaki, a Japanese Christian told him he would like to hear the two bells of the cathedral ring together in his lifetime. Inspired by the idea, James Nolan, a sociology professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, embarked on a year-long series of lectures about the atomic bomb across the United States, primarily in churches. He managed to raise $125,000 from American Catholics to fund the new bell. When it was unveiled in Nagasaki in the spring, "the reactions were magnificent. There were people literally in tears", said Nolan. Many American Catholics he met were also unaware of the painful history of Nagasaki's Christians, who, converted in the 16th century by the first European missionaries and then persecuted by Japanese shoguns, kept their faith alive clandestinely for over 250 years. This story was told in the novel "Silence" by Shusaku Endo, and adapted into a film by Martin Scorsese in 2016. He explains that American Catholics also showed "compassion and sadness" upon hearing about the perseverance of Nagasaki's Christians after the atomic bomb, which killed 8,500 of the parish's 12,000 faithful. They were inspired by the "willingness to forgive and rebuild". © 2025 AFP
The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
Nagasaki marks 80th A-bomb anniv. as survivors put hopes of nuke ban in hands of youth
NAGASAKI, Japan (AP) -- The southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on Saturday marked 80 years since the U.S. atomic attack that killed tens of thousands and left survivors who hope their harrowing memories can help make their hometown the last place on Earth to be hit by a nuclear bomb. The United States launched the Nagasaki attack on Aug. 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country's nearly half-century of aggression across Asia. About 2,600 people, including representatives from more than 90 countries, attended a memorial event at Nagasaki Peace Park, where Mayor Shiro Suzuki and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke, among other guests. At 11:02 a.m., the exact time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, participants observed a moment of silence as a bell rang. Nagasaki pledges to be the last atomic bombing site Dozens of doves, a symbol of peace, were released after a speech by Suzuki, whose parents are survivors of the attack. He said the city's memories of the bombing are "a common heritage and should be passed down for generations" in and outside Japan. "The existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth," Suzuki said. "In order to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and forever, we will go hand-in-hand with global citizens and devote our utmost efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of everlasting world peace." Praying for nuclear abolition and no war Survivors and their families gathered Saturday in rainy weather at Peace Park and nearby Hypocenter Park, located below the bomb's exact detonation spot, hours before the official ceremony. "I simply seek a world without war," said Koichi Kawano, an 85-year-old survivor who laid flowers at the Hypocenter monument decorated with colorful paper cranes and other offerings. Some others prayed at churches in Nagasaki, home to Catholic converts who went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution in Japan's feudal era. The twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed in the bombing, also rang together again after one of the bells that had gone missing following the attack was restored by volunteers. Despite their pain from wounds, discrimination and illnesses from radiation, survivors have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they worry about the world moving in the opposite direction. Survivors put their hopes in younger hands Aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki now put their hopes of achieving nuclear weapons abolition in the hands of younger people, telling them the attack is not distant history, but an issue that remains relevant to their future. "There are only two things I long for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and prohibition of war," survivor Fumi Takeshita said. "I only see a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everyone can live in peace." In hopes of passing on the lessons of history, Takeshita visits schools to share her experience with children. "When you grow up and remember what you learned today, please think what each of you can do to prevent war," Takeshita, 83, told students during a school visit earlier this week. Teruko Yokoyama, an 83-year-old member of a Nagasaki organization supporting survivors, said she feels the absence of those she has worked, which fuels her strong desire to document the lives of remaining survivors. The number of survivors has fallen to 99,130, about a quarter of the original number, with their average age exceeding 86. Survivors worry about fading memories, as the youngest of the survivors were too young to recall the attack clearly. "We must keep records of the atomic bombing damages of the survivors and thier lifetime story," said Yokoyama, whose two sisters died after suffering illnesses linked to radiation. Her organization has started to digitalize the narratives of survivors for viewing on YouTube and other social media platforms with the help of a new generation. "There are younger people who are beginning to take action," Yokoyama told The Associated Press on Friday. "So I think we don't have to get depressed yet." Nagasaki hosted a "peace forum" on Friday where survivors shared their stories with more than 300 young people from around the country. Seiichiro Mise, a 90-year-old survivor, said he is handing seeds of "flowers of peace" to the younger generation in hopes of seeing them bloom. Japan's security dilemma Survivors are frustrated by a growing nuclear threat and support among international leaders for developing or possessing nuclear weapons for deterrence. They criticize the Japanese government's refusal to sign or even participate in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because Japan, as an American ally, needs U.S. nuclear possession as deterrence. In Ishiba's speech, the prime mininister reiterated Japan's pursuit of a nuclear-free world and pledged to promote dialogue and cooperation between countries with nuclear weapons and non-nuclear states at the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons review conference scheduled for April and May 2026 in New York City. Ishiba, however, did not mention the nuclear weapons ban treaty. Nagasaki invited representatives from all countries to attend the ceremony Saturday. China notably notified the city it would not be present without providing a reason. The ceremony last year stirred controversy due to the absence of the U.S. ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city's refusal to invite Israel.
