By Miriam Specka
August 6 of this year marked 75 years since August 6, 1945, when the United States of American dropped an uranium bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima in hopes of prompting Japan to surrender in WWII, killing around 70,000 to 130,000 people. Only three days later, the U.S. attacked Nagasaki, about 420 kilometers south of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 civilians.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the mayor of Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui joined survivors and their descendants in the city’s Peace Park in remembrance of the nuclear attack, but, like many things this year, the memorial events planned to commemorate the anniversary were scaled back drastically due to the COVID-10 pandemic. While in the past the park received thousands of guests on the anniversary, this year visitors sat in spaced out chairs and attended wearing masks.
Despite tragedy, Hiroshima has become a symbol of peace, hope, and recovery, with Matsui announcing “On August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb destroyed our city. Rumour at the time had it that 'nothing will grow here for 75 years, and yet, Hiroshima recovered, becoming a symbol of peace." Matsui also urged the Japanese government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and set a precedent for other world powers to do the same. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres touched on the strength that the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have shown, stating that they have chosen to be characterized by “resilience, reconciliation and hope,” and turned their pain into “a rallying voice for the safety and well-being of all humanity.”
The heartbreaking events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only uses of nuclear weapons in armed conflict the world has seen, and many organizations, such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), are actively working to ensure that this remains so. This organization, led Swedish lawyer Beatrice Fihn, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its work on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and drawing “attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons,” with Fihn accepting the award together with Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow.
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