Japan on Wednesday marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, with survivors expressing frustration over the world’s growing nuclear peril and advocating for an end to atomic weapons.
PUNCH Online reports that at approximately 8:15 am (23:15 GMT), the US aircraft Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945, resulting in the deaths of at least 140,000 people.
On the remembrance day of the horrific incidents, many ageing survivors have expressed frustration about growing support among global leaders for nuclear weapons possession for deterrence.
AP reported that a Japanese grassroots organisation of survivors that won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for its pursuit of nuclear abolition, Nihon Hidankyo, said in a statement that “we don’t have much time left, while we face a greater nuclear threat than ever.”
The organisation stated that the toughest part of the push for a nuclear-free world is breaking through the indifference of the countries that possess the bombs.
“Our biggest challenge now is to change nuclear weapons states that give us cold shoulders even just a little,” it said.
Three days after Hiroshima, on August 9, the US dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 70,000 people. Japan then surrendered on August 15, ending World War II and bringing to a close nearly half a century of its military expansion in Asia.
According to AP, representatives from a record 120 countries and regions, including Russia and Belarus, were expected to attend and observe a minute of silence with the sound of a peace bell at 8:15 a.m., the time when a U.S. B-29 dropped the bomb on the city.