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On the day when Japan and the world commemorate the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons, France Press reported, quoted by BTA.

About 140,000 people died in the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and another 74,000 – in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki three days later, at the end of the Second World War, recalls AFP.

„The devastation caused by nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never be repeated. Japan, the only country to be atomic bombed during the war, will continue its efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons,“ Kishida said at a ceremony in Hiroshima, where his family originated.

„The road to this goal is becoming increasingly difficult due to the growing disagreements in the international community about nuclear disarmament and the nuclear threat from Russia,“ he noted. „Given this, it is even more important to give a new international push to the aspiration to establish a world without nuclear weapons,“ the prime minister emphasized.

Kishida’s words were in the spirit of a statement by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, released on the anniversary of the bombing, in which he regretted that „some countries are again recklessly brandishing the nuclear sword, threatening to use these means of destruction.“ „In the face of these threats, the world community must speak with one voice. Resorting to nuclear weapons is unacceptable,“ Guterres said.

Thousands of people attending the memorial ceremony, including survivors, parents and relatives of those who died in the bombing, as well as foreign high-ranking guests from a record 111 countries, prayed for the victims and the wounded and called for world peace.

For the second year in a row, the city of Hiroshima did not invite Russia and Belarus to the ceremony because of the war in Ukraine.

At exactly 08:15 local time (23:15 GMT yesterday) – the hour when the first nuclear weapon ever used in war was dropped on Hiroshima – those present bowed their heads and observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.

Earlier this year, Kishida hosted the G7 summit in Hiroshima. He tried to make nuclear disarmament a priority topic in the discussions, taking the leaders of the other six countries in the group to visit memorials and a museum in the city’s Peace Park.

In a Declaration of Peace delivered at today’s ceremony, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui called on world leaders to abandon the theory of nuclear deterrence.

„World leaders must face the reality that the nuclear threats now being made by some politicians expose the folly of the nuclear deterrence theory. It will be increasingly important for us to call on politicians to abandon the concept of nuclear deterrence in favor of of a peaceful world that refuses to compromise with personal dignity and security,“ Matsui said, as quoted by DPA.

The first American bomb, dropped on August 6, 1945, over Hiroshima, killed tens of thousands of the city’s inhabitants in seconds. By the end of that year, however, the victims of the bombing were about 140,000.

Three days later, the US dropped a second atomic bomb – over the city of Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allied forces, ending the war.

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