Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged nuclear states to abandon such weapons.
TOKYO – Amid growing tension between Washington and North Korea, the mayor of Nagasaki said Wednesday that the fear of another nuclear bomb attack is growing at a ceremony marking the 72nd anniversary of the U. S. atomic bombing of his city.
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged nuclear states to abandon such weapons and criticized Japan’s government for not taking part in the global effort toward a nuclear ban.
The bombing anniversary comes just as Pyongyang and Washington are trading escalating threats. President Donald Trump threatened North Korea “with fire and fury” and North Korea’s military said Wednesday that it was examining its plans for attacking Guam.
“The international situation surrounding nuclear weapons is becoming increasingly tense, ” Taue said at Nagasaki’s Peace Park. “A strong sense of anxiety is spreading across the globe that in the not too distant future these weapons could actually be used again.”
The world’s first atomic bomb, used on Aug. 6,1945, killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed 70,000 more.
At 11: 02 a.m., when the bomb struck 72 years ago, people at the ceremony observed a moment of silence as the peace bell rang.
“The nuclear threat will not end as long as nations continue to claim that nuclear weapons are essential for their national security, ” Taue said.
