As long as there are nuclear weapons, there will be a risk of using them: Hiroshima governor

AP and Sputnik

The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 7, 2024, p. 27

Tokyo – Hiroshima officials on Monday urged world leaders to stop relying on nuclear weapons as a deterrent and take immediate steps toward eliminating them, not as an ideal but to end the risk of atomic war amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and rising tensions in East Asia.

The appeal was made during a memorial service for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 79 years ago, at the end of World War II.

The commemoration comes days after Japan and the United States reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to the extended deterrenceincluding atomic weapons, to protect its Asian ally. This marks a change from Japan’s previous reluctance to openly discuss this sensitive issue, as it is the only country in the world to have suffered nuclear attacks.

Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki said that nuclear-armed nations and supporters of atomic deterrence They deliberately ignore the fact that once people invent a weapon, they use it without exception. As long as nuclear weapons exist, they will surely be used again one day..

At Hiroshima Peace Park, the mayor of that martyred city, Kazumi Matsui, said that Russia’s war against Ukraine and the worsening conflict between Israel and the Palestinians are aggravating distrust and fear among nations and reinforcing the view that the use of force to resolve conflicts is inevitable.

The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroyed the city and killed 140,000 people. A second bomb, dropped three days later on Nagasaki, claimed the lives of 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II and nearly half a century of Japanese aggression in Asia.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of the catastrophic consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, calling them a real and present danger to humanity.