Hiroshima marks 80 years since atomic bombing amid escalating nuclear tensions
Japan marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed, as sabre-rattling between the United States and Russia keeps the nuclear "Doomsday Clock" close to midnight.
A silent prayer was held at 8:15 am (2315 GMT), the moment when US aircraft Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy" over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945.
On a sweltering morning, hundreds of black-clad officials, students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph, with the ruins of a domed building in the background, a stark reminder of the horrors that unfolded.
In a speech, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of "an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world", against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East.
Read moreHiroshima, 80 years on: Meeting the last survivors of the apocalypse
"These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history," he said.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was Japan's mission "to take the lead... toward a world without nuclear weapons".
The final death toll of the Hiroshima attack would hit around 140,000 people, killed not just by the colossal blast and the ball of fire, but also later by the radiation.
Three days after "Little Boy", on August 9, another atomic bomb killed 74,000 people in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, bringing an end to World War II.
Today, Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million but the attacks live on in the memories of many.
On the eve of the ceremony, people began lining up to pay their respects to the victims in front of the cenotaph.
Before dawn on Wednesday, families who lost loved ones in the attack also came to pray.
Yoshie Yokoyama, 96, who arrived in a wheelchair with her grandson, told reporters that her parents and grandparents were bomb victims.
"My grandfather died soon after the bombing, while my father and mother both died after developing cancer. My parents-in-law also died, so my husband couldn't see them again when he came back from battlefields after the war.
"People are still suffering," she added.
Wednesday's ceremony was set to include a record of around 120 countries and regions including, for the first time, Taiwanese and Palestinian representatives.
The United States -- which has never formally apologised for the bombings -- was represented by its ambassador to Japan. Russia and China were absent.
Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organisation that last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, is representing the dwindling number of survivors, known as hibakusha.
As of March, there were 99,130 hibakusha, according to the Japanese health ministry, with the average age of 86.
"I want foreign envoys to visit the peace memorial museum and understand what happened," the group's co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki told local media ahead of the commemorations.
Pope Leo XIV said in a statement that "in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts", Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained "living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons".
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that "the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion".
Read moreMedvedev vs Trump: Russian ex-president becomes Putin's provocateur-in-chief
Younger generation
The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.
Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, who survived the blasts as a baby, told AFP he was hopeful that there could eventually be a nuclear-free world.
"The younger generation is working hard for that end," he said ahead of the ceremony.
But in January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' "Doomsday Clock" shifted to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest in its 78-year history.
The clock symbolising humanity's distance from destruction was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia and the United States account for around 90 percent of the world's over 12,000 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
SIPRI warned in June that "a dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened," with nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states modernising their arsenals.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
China wants US to relax chip-export controls as part of trade deal, FT reports
(Reuters) -China wants the United States to ease export controls on a critical component for artificial intelligence chips as part of a trade deal ahead of a possible summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
China's ‘super-embassy' plans in the heart of London anger locals who fear for their safety
Asia China UKFacebookTweetLink Follow It's a quiet, unassuming road that lies a stone's throw away from some of London's most celebrated landmarks. But residents of Cartwright Street could soon be looking out of their windows to the balconies of Chinese embassy staff, if plans to build a new 'super-embassy' in the area go ahead. China is pushing forward with designs for its new diplomatic outpost at Royal Mint Court, a large plot in the heart of London, near Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The imposing building, which currently lies empty, was once home to the facility that manufactured Britain's coinage. If the proposal goes ahead, China will invest several hundreds of million dollars into the building's transformation, remaking it as the largest embassy in Europe. China bought the historic parcel of land in 2018, for around $312 million. The plans have raised espionage fears, rattled locals in the area nervous for their personal security, and come at a time when bounties have been issued by Beijing for Hong Kongers in the UK. The UK has been a popular destination for many migrating from the former British colony, now a semi-autonomous Chinese city, where Beijing has cracked down hard on dissent over the past five years. Barry, an insurance broker who did not provide CNN with a surname and works in the Royal Mint Court area, compared the Chinese takeover of the site to the UK government selling off the crown jewels. 'The building is such a UK monument… it was the Royal Mint. So to give that to a foreign government, especially the Chinese with everything that's happening with the Chinese at the moment, is a bit of a joke,' he told CNN. 'Our office is just facing it, and we are one unit in a block of maybe 2,000 employees who work there, and I've not heard anybody say one good thing about it.' After much government wrangling, Angela Rayner, the UK's deputy prime minister and housing secretary, is expected to make a final decision on whether to green light the controversial plans by September 9. In a twist last week, Rayner gave China two weeks to explain why parts of the blueprint it provided for the sprawling embassy site have been blacked out. The letter, seen by Britain's PA Media news agency, sets a deadline of August 20 for Beijing to give its reasoning for the redacted information. CNN has reached out to China's embassy in London for comment. Beijing's previous application for the embassy was initially rejected by the local Tower Hamlets council in 2022 on security grounds. Beijing resubmitted the application last year just weeks after Labour returned to power in the UK, in the hopes that the new government led by Keir Starmer would be more receptive to the request. The empty Royal Mint Court had been due for redevelopment into a complex with shops, offices and a leisure center before it was bought by China. Since then, some 100 homes in the area have been classified as being on Chinese-owned land. If the embassy plans go ahead, these properties will remain on Chinese land, although they will not fall under the embassy's territory. Locals in an apartment block on western Cartwright Street could also find themselves residing adjacent to the embassy staff's living quarters. Balconies to be purposely built for diplomatic staff would be visible from the block's rear windows, CNN understands. The Royal Mint Court Residents' Association, which represents around 300 people living in nearby buildings and has engaged in a years-long battle against the plan, say they are fearful of how China could exercise its powers as landlord once the embassy is built next door. The association's treasurer, Mark Nygate, 64, lives on the estate just meters from the site. The parking lot of the block is separated from the proposed embassy site by a simple wooden fence, in what Nygate refers to as a 'soft border.' Speaking to CNN, Nygate raised concerns their Chinese landlords could carry out random searches of the properties, or residents could face accusations of spying. He explained, 'I like to take photos. I've got an allotment, and I take photos of that, but the allotment actually runs along the border.' Nygate continued, 'So quite easily you could be taking a photo of something and they're going to think you're spying. 'Because they own our land, they are our landlords and therefore they have certain rights to get in (the properties). If they find something they're not happy with, you can be damn sure they're going to come and check us out.' London's Metropolitan Police has also voiced concern over any mass demonstrations at the embassy, warning that they could impede traffic and spill over into the roads, impacting tourist areas. Meanwhile, protesters and rights groups fear that the new embassy building could facilitate espionage and Beijing's 'long-arm' law enforcement, putting opponents of the Chinese government in the UK at risk. One resident who lives near the embassy site told CNN the plans should not be allowed to go ahead. 'It's too close to Tower Bridge,' said the man, who declined to give his name. He also cited concerns over disappearances in Hong Kong. China has previously been accused of using its outposts, in effect, as overseas police stations to monitor Chinese citizens abroad and coerce them to return home. One such incident occurred in the UK in October 2022, when a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was dragged into the grounds of a Chinese consulate in Manchester and beaten, in events captured on camera. Subsequently, China removed six diplomats from Britain who police wanted to question in connection with the alleged beating. But others with key stakes in the Royal Mint area have dismissed the espionage and bounty fears as 'scaremongering.' Mark Lahiff, a local property developer who serves as managing director of the UK's subsidiary of Malaysian-based IJM, spoke in favor of the embassy's establishment at a government hearing in London in February. 'This borough, Tower Hamlets, is one of the most impoverished boroughs in the UK,' Lahiff, whose projects with IJM include the Royal Mint Gardens aparthotel, told CNN. 'For the People's Republic of China to invest into this borough is a huge investment. That site in particular has been empty since 2008.' He continued, 'It's a listed site in a strategic part of London, next to the Tower of London. We've been looking at it rotting away for decades, so to bring some life and vitality into this area, and the socio-economic benefits, are huge for the borough.' But Nygate rejects the notion that Chinese investment would be advantageous for the area, saying that redevelopment would come at the expense of the residents living there currently. 'I've been against the embassy from the start,' he said. 'It's all about prestige in the end because they (the Chinese) want to outdo the American embassy.'
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Xi Looks to Tighten Grip After Scandals Shake China's Military Elite
Outwardly, China's military has never been stronger. Its naval ships venture farther across the oceans. Its nuclear force grows by about 100 warheads every year. Its military flights around Taiwan are increasingly frequent and intimidating. Every few months, China unveils new weapons, like a prototype stealth fighter or newfangled landing barges. Internally, though, China's military is experiencing its most serious leadership disarray in years. Three of the seven seats on the Central Military Commission — the Communist Party council that controls the armed forces — appear to be vacant after members were arrested or simply disappeared. That internal turbulence is testing the effort by President Xi Jinping, going back more than a decade, to build a military that is loyal, modern, combat-ready and fully under his control. Mr. Xi has set a 2027 target for modernizing the People's Liberation Army, or P.L.A., and also — according to some U.S. officials — for gaining the ability to invade Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. The current wave of investigations and removals has reached some commanders handpicked by Mr. Xi, suggesting recurrent problems in a system that he has tried for years to clean up. In the first years after Mr. Xi came to power in 2012, he launched an intense campaign to clean up corruption in the military and impose tighter control, culminating in a big reorganization. 'When Xi Jinping sees his own men making mistakes, he is likely to be especially furious,' Joseph Torigian, an associate professor at American University who has studied Chinese leaders' relations with the military, said of Mr. Xi. 'Control over the military is so existential. It's inherently explosive. That's why any sense of stepping out of line has to be crushed.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
