Japan remembers Nagasaki atomic bomb 70 years on

Seventy years after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, Pope Francis on Sunday (August 9) described the bomb as a “lasting warning to humanity”.

“As the only nation in the world to have suffered a wartime nuclear attack, I have renewed my resolve to play a leading role in pursuing a world without nuclear weapons and maintaining the three non-nuclear principles”, Mr Abe said in Nagasaki Peace Park.

He was criticized for not mentioning the principles in his Hiroshima speech three days earlier.

China, which often emphasises its own victimisation at the hands of foreign powers, is itself gearing up to commemorate Japan’s World War II defeat, planning a massive military parade through central Beijing. ‘I can not tolerate the bills’.

In a ceremony that featured survivors recounting their horrific experiences, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue called Sunday for the abolition of nuclear weapons and joined peace activists in denouncing proposed security legislation that would move Japan to a stronger war footing.

Given the enormity of their suffering, both countries remain deeply suspicious of Japan despite its post-war pacifism, enshrined in Article Nine of the Constitution which prohibits involvement in any conflict, except in self-defense.

The legislation would allow the country, for the first time since the war, to engage in combat in defence of an ally that comes under attack.

Ceremonies being held 70 years on from blast which killed tens of thousands in one of the last chapters of World War II.

However, the Japanese tweet´s wording translated as “a day of nothing” – and coincided with commemorations for the more than 74,000 people killed when the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

A wall of heat up to 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 degrees Fahrenheit) – hot enough to melt steel – incinerated that city.

Gums bled, teeth fell out, hair came off in clumps; there were cancers, premature births, malformed babies and sudden deaths.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn’t end the war immediately, on August 15th, Japan’s emperor surrendered unconditionally.

Hospitals in Japan say they are still treating thousands of survivors and new links between radiation exposure and fatal illnesses are being discovered.

Recalling his visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki five years ago, the Secretary-General saluted the hibakusha, who he said present “the human face of this man-made tragedy”, refusing to relent in advocating hope for a better future.