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Nagasaki mayor calls on nations in conflict to cease fighting
Nagasaki elementary school students sing at the Aug. 9 memorial ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the city's atomic bombing. (Jun Ueda)
NAGASAKI--Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki called for an immediate ceasefire in military conflicts around the world during a ceremony held Aug. 9 to mark the 80th anniversary of his city's atomic bombing.
A record 101 nations and regions, including the European Union, had planned to send representatives to the ceremony, but seven nations canceled at the last minute.
Participants observed a moment of silent prayer at 11:02 a.m., marking the moment in 1945 when the atomic bomb detonated over the port city and unleashed its terror.
Russia and Israel sent representatives to the ceremony along with Taiwan, which does not have diplomatic ties with Japan. Russia and Israel were not invited last year because of the wars they are waging.
China decided not to take part this year.
While not naming any specific nation in the Peace Declaration, Suzuki said, 'Immediately cease from disputes in which 'force is met with force.''
He added: 'If we continue on this trajectory, we will end up thrusting ourselves into a nuclear war. This existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth.'
According to sources, days before the final draft of the peace declaration was to be decided on, the U.S. bombing in late June of Iranian nuclear facilities came as a huge shock to Suzuki, leading to the decision to include wording calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The peace declaration also touched upon Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
A core member of the organization, the late Senji Yamaguchi of Nagasaki, became the first hibakusha to speak at the U.N. General Assembly in 1982 at which he uttered the memorable phrase, 'No more Hiroshimas. No more Nagasakis. No more war. No more hibakusha.'
Hiroshi Nishioka, 91, spoke on behalf of hibakusha at the ceremony. He recalled that he was at his junior high school when the bomb exploded.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba quoted from Takashi Nagai, a Catholic physician who helped survivors in the Urakami district of Nagasaki even after his wife was killed in the blast and he himself suffered serious injuries.
Nagai wrote of his desire to have Urakami become the last place on Earth to be hit by an atomic bomb.
Ishiba said, 'We must never again repeat the tremendous suffering that befell Hiroshima and Nagasaki.'
