Japan

Nagasaki commemorates the victims of the atomic bombing

People observe a minute's silence at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park. Photo: Eugene Hoshiko/AP/dpa

Keystone

The Japanese city of Nagasaki has commemorated the victims of the atomic bombing 80 years ago with a new appeal for the abolition of all nuclear weapons in the world. Nagasaki's mayor Shiro Suzuki warned urgently of the growing danger of nuclear war. "This existential crisis of humanity has become immediate for each and every one of us on earth," said Suzuki in his peace declaration. He called on the world to learn from history and ensure that Nagasaki remains the last city to suffer a nuclear inferno.

Keystone-SDA

09.08.2025, 10:11

At 11:02 a.m. (local time), the time when the "Fat Man" atomic bomb dropped by a US bomber exploded over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the participants of the commemoration ceremony observed a minute's silence. In Nagasaki alone, around 70,000 people were killed and 75,000 others injured as a direct result of the bomb. Three days earlier, the USA had already devastated Hiroshima with an atomic bomb with less explosive force.

Symbol of the horrors of war

Under the impact of the destruction, the Empire of Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945. Hiroshima and Nagasaki became known worldwide as the first and so far only cities to be devastated by an atomic bomb as a symbol of the horrors of war - and of peace.

Today's world is plagued by a vicious cycle of confrontation and fragmentation, Suzuki said. He called for this to be overcome. The fact that the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize last year by survivors of the atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki shows the power of civil society.

The grassroots movement received the most important peace prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. Nagasaki's mayor once again called on the government of his own country to join a 2017 UN treaty banning nuclear weapons. Three days earlier, Suzuki's colleague in Hiroshima had already called on the Japanese government to do the same.