Outrage as Trump compares Iran strikes to Japan atomic bombing
SINGAPORE — Japan has condemned US President Donald Trump for comparing recent US strikes on Iran to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II.
"That hit ended the war," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. "I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing."
About 140,000 people died when the US dropped atomic bombs on the two southern Japanese cities in August 1945. Survivors live with psychological trauma and heightened cancer risk to this day.
If Trump's comment "justifies the dropping of the atomic bomb, it is extremely regrettable for us as a city that was bombed," said Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki.
Trump's comments are "unacceptable", said Mimaki Toshiyuki, an atomic bomb survivor who co-chairs the Nobel Peace Prize-winning advocacy group Nihon Hidankyo, public broadcaster NHK reported.
"I'm really disappointed. All I have is anger," said another member of the group, Teruko Yokoyama, in a Kyodo News report.Survivors of the atomic bomb attacks staged a protest in Hiroshima on Thursday, demanding Trump retract his statement.Lawmakers in Hiroshima also passed a resolution on Thursday rejecting statements that justify the use of atomic bombs, and called for armed conflicts to be settled peacefully.Asked if Tokyo would lodge a complaint over Trump's remarks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa said that Japan has repeatedly expressed its position on atomic bombs to Washington.Trump's comments on Wednesday came as he pushed back on a leaked intelligence report that said US strikes on Iran only set its nuclear programme back by a few months.Trump had insisted that the strikes "obliterated" the program and set it back "decades" - a claim backed by CIA director John Ratcliffe.Japan is the only country in the world to have been hit by a nuclear attack and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still stir painful memories.In Hiroshima, a peace flame that symbolises the country's opposition to nuclear weapons has been burning since the 1960s while a clock that counts the number of days since the world's last nuclear attack is displayed at the entrance of a war museum.World leaders who visit Hiroshima are also asked to make paper cranes to affirm their commitment to peace. — BBC
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
42 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump could order Iran strikes an if intel concludes uranium enrichment possible
US President Donald Trump says he would consider bombing Iran again if intelligence reports conclude that Tehran could enrich uranium to a level that concerns him. Trump also responded to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's recent comments that Iran was victorious in the 12-day war with Israel. Iran 'got beat to hell,' as did Israel, according to Trump. 'It was a great time to end it.' After his comments to reporters at the White House, Trump took to Truth Social to slam Khamenei. 'During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery - The sanctions are BITING! But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,' Trump said. He also said he did not allow Israel or the US military to kill the Iranian supreme leader and suggested that he forced Israeli fighter jets to return from a mission in Tehran following his announcement of a ceasefire between the two as well. 'I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'
Saudi Gazette
5 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Iran's FM says talks with Washington 'complicated' by US strikes on nuclear sites
TEHRAN — Iran's top diplomat said on Friday that the possibility of new negotiations with the United States on his country's nuclear programme has been "complicated" by US strikes on three of the sites, which he conceded had caused "serious damage." The US was one of the parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which saw Iran agree to limit its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for sanctions relief and other benefits. That deal unravelled in 2018 after President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out during his first term, calling it the "worst deal ever negotiated." Trump had suggested he is interested in new talks with Iran and said the two sides would meet next week. In an interview on Iranian state television broadcast late on Thursday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left open the possibility that his country would again enter talks on its nuclear program, but suggested it would not be anytime soon. "No agreement has been made for resuming the negotiations," he said. "No time has been set, no promise has been made and we haven't even talked about restarting the talks." The American decision to intervene militarily "made it more complicated and more difficult" for talks on Iran's nuclear programme, Araghchi said. In Friday prayers, many imams stressed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's message from the day before that the war had been a victory for Iran. Cleric Hamzeh Khalili, who also is the deputy chief justice of Iran, vowed during a prayer service in Tehran that the courts would prosecute people accused of spying for Israel "in a special way." During the 12-day conflict with Israel, Iran hanged several people who it already had in custody on espionage charges, sparking fears from activists that it could conduct a wave of executions after the fighting ended. Authorities have reportedly detained dozens in various cities on the charge of cooperation with Israel. Israel attacked Iran on 13 June, targeting its nuclear sites, defence systems, high-ranking military officials and atomic scientists in waved of strikes. In almost two weeks of fighting, Israel said it killed some 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists, while hitting eight nuclear-related facilities and more than 720 military infrastructure sites. More than 1,000 people were killed, including at least 417 civilians, according to the Washington-based Human Rights Activists group. Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted but those that got through caused damage in many areas and killed 28 people. Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said Friday that in some areas it had exceeded its operational goals, but needed to remain vigilant. "We are under no illusion, the enemy has not changed its intentions," he said. The US stepped in on Sunday to hit Iran's three most important nuclear sites with a wave of cruise missiles and bunker-buster bombs dropped by B-2 bombers, designed to penetrate deep into the ground to damage the heavily-fortified targets. Iran, in retaliation, fired missiles at the US military base, Al Udeida, in Qatar on Monday but caused no known casualties. Trump said the American attacks "completely and fully obliterated" Iran's nuclear programme, though Khamenei on Thursday accused the US president of exaggerating the damage, saying the strikes did not "achieve anything significant." There has been speculation that Iran moved much of its highly-enriched uranium before the strikes, something that it told the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that it planned to do. Even if that turns out to be true, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi told Radio France International that the damage done to the Fordow site, which is built into a mountain, "is very, very, very considerable." Among other things, he said, centrifuges are "quite precise machines" and it's "not possible" that the concussion from multiple 30,000-pound bombs would not have caused "important physical damage." "These centrifuges are no longer operational," he said. Araghchi himself acknowledged "the level of damage is high and it's serious damage." He added that Iran had not yet decided whether to allow IAEA inspectors to assess the damage, but they would be kept out "for the time being". — Euronews
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
UAE fund buys $100 million of Trump's World Liberty tokens
A United Arab Emirates-based fund has bought $100 million worth of digital tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture of US President Donald Trump's family, becoming its largest publicly known investor. Aqua 1 Foundation said in a statement on Thursday its purchase of the tokens, known as $WLFI, sought to speed up the creation of a 'blockchain-powered financial ecosystem' with stablecoins and tokenized traditional assets at its heart. A spokesperson for World Liberty confirmed the investment to Reuters. A so-called governance token, $WLFI cannot be traded but gives holders the right to vote on changes to the business' underlying code. World Liberty said this week it was 'working behind the scenes' to make the token transferable. 'WLFI and Aqua 1 will jointly identify and nurture high-potential blockchain projects together,' Aqua 1 founding partner Dave Lee said in the statement. The fund's investment and compliance teams would help World Liberty expand in South America, Europe and Asia, it added. Despite its investment, Aqua 1 maintains a minimal online presence. Its X account has only three posts and approximately 1,120 followers while its website was created on May 28, according to data from two web domain trackers. World Liberty also plans to support the launch of a separate Aqua 1 fund aimed at boosting the 'digital economy transformation' in the Middle East through blockchain and artificial intelligence, the statement said. Aqua 1 did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the World Liberty spokesperson had no further immediate comment. Launched two months before the 2024 US presidential election by Trump and his business partners, World Liberty has yielded hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Republican president's family business. World Liberty has drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers and government ethics watchdogs over potential conflicts of interest. The Trump Organization has said the president's investments, assets and business interests are held in a trust managed by his children. World Liberty aims to open access to financial services via digital tokens, without intermediaries such as banks. It has launched a stablecoin called USD1 that was bolstered in May when an Abu Dhabi investment firm chose it for a $2 billion investment in giant crypto exchange Binance.
