US part in nuclear bombardment absent at commemoration events
(MENAFN) At Friday’s ceremony marking 80 years since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, officials refrained from mentioning the United States as the nation responsible for the attack, continuing a tradition seen at similar memorials.
Japanese and international speakers focused on the devastation caused by the bombing and the need for nuclear disarmament, avoiding direct reference to the US role in the bombings of both Nagasaki and Hiroshima during the final days of World War II.
Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru stressed the importance of preserving the memory of the events and their tragic consequences. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, via remarks read by his disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu, urged nations to turn commitments into tangible action, centered on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki pressed world leaders to lay out concrete plans for eliminating nuclear weapons.
The US remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons in conflict, a fact also omitted in Wednesday’s Hiroshima remembrance. The two bombings killed around 200,000 civilians. While US leaders have long defended the strikes as necessary to end the war without a costly invasion, a 1946 US Strategic Bombing Survey concluded Japan would likely have surrendered without them.
The commemoration comes weeks after US airstrikes targeted three Iranian sites linked to Tehran’s nuclear program. Washington claimed the strikes aimed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear arms, which Tehran denies seeking. Critics, including Russia and China, have accused the US of undermining global non-proliferation efforts under the NPT, which allows peaceful nuclear technology use by its signatories.
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