Japan marks Nagasaki anniversary
Print Edition
JAPAN yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki that claimed more than 74,000 lives, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came under fire for his attempts to expand the military’s role.
Bells tolled and tens of thousands of people, including ageing survivors and the relatives of victims, observed a minute’s silence at 11:02am, the moment the bomb from a US plane devastated the port city on August 9, 1945.
“As the only country attacked with an atomic bomb in war, I am renewing our determination to lead the global effort for nuclear disarmament, to create a world without such weapons,” Abe said in his speech.
He promised that Japan would continue to abide by its long-held principles: not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory.
Abe was criticized for failing to mention the three principles at a ceremony days earlier in Hiroshima, alarming atomic bomb survivors — particularly when the nationalist leader is trying to push through legislation to extend the military’s role.
Nagasaki survivor Sumiteru Taniguchi, 86, lashed out at Abe’s government for trying to revise the pacifist constitution, accusing it of returning Japan to the state before the end of World War II.
“The security bills the government is trying to push through would jeopardize our long-time movement for nuclear abolition and hopes of hibakusha (atom-bomb survivors),” he said. “I cannot tolerate the bills.”
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue also criticized the government as Abe listened.
“Worries and anxieties are now spreading among us that this pledge made 70 years ago and the principle for peace in the Japanese constitution may be now undermined,” he said.
Abe has faced criticism for his attempts to expand the role of his pacifist country’s so-called Self-Defense Forces.
These would allow them to engage in combat — in defense of an ally under attack — for the first time since the war.
In the now bustling port city of Nagasaki, about 74,000 people died in the initial blast from a plutonium bomb nicknamed “Fat Man.” Thousands of others perished months or years later from radiation sickness.
The attack came three days after the US dropped a bomb, dubbed “Little Boy,” on Hiroshima in history’s first atomic bombing.
These dealt the final blows to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945 to bring an end to World War II.
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