The Japanese city of Nagasaki commemorates this Tuesday August 9 the American nuclear bombardment which destroyed it 77 years ago. Dropped at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb killed 74,000 people. Three days and three hours before, nearly 300 kilometers from Nagasaki, on August 6, Hiroshima was also wiped off the map by nuclear fire.
By being the first of the two bombs, Hiroshima made a greater impression. Teruko Yokoyama is a “hibakusha”, survivor in Japanese, irradiated in Nagasaki at the age of 4. For her, it makes no difference:First or second it doesn’t matter, it has to be the last forever.“And this survivor immediately thinks of the Ukrainian context.”In Ukraine, Russia says ‘we are going to use a nuclear weapon’. It would be completely unacceptable. she laments. I absolutely do not want the generation of my grandchildren and their descendants to have to endure the same thing.”
Among the 94 nations represented at the Nagasaki commemorations on August 9, there is neither Russia nor Belarus. “I didn’t invite themdefends the mayor of Nagasaki, Tomihisa Taue. On the other hand, the number of nations represented this year is increasing very sharply. In the current context, ambassadors and countries want to express together with Nagasaki a desire for peace”, he explains. This desire for peace must be carried by the new generations, because the average age of survivors is now approaching 85 years. “The problem of nuclear weapons is not only that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”, explains the elected.
“We have so far depended on the survivors. But it is very important now that other citizens around the world relay the message that was only spread by the survivors.”
Tomihisa Taue, Mayor of Nagasakifranceinfo
And in the current situation, the hibakusha have need their message to be carried by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “I want it to carry the thoughts of all the victims, dead and surviving“, slips a survivor. Especially since the one who is at the head of the Japanese government is from Hiroshima. The one whose fight for the disappearance of nuclear weapons appears inseparable from his political action “must commit more strongly, with more conviction“, according to her. “He is the Prime Minister of the only country to have suffered the atomic bomb, he must be on the front line, no one else on the world stage can take this place“, she explains.
The hibakusha do not understand that Japan, which will host the G7 summit in 2023 in Hiroshima, has not signed the treaty to ban nuclear weapons (TPNW), concluded in 2017 and entering into force in 2021. Japan, only country victim of nuclear strikes, depends on the American nuclear umbrella.
Japan: Nagasaki 77 years later – Report by Karyn Nishimura
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