Nagasaki Mayor Calls On Nuclear Umbrella Countries To Give Up Weapons

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) Baku. Azerbaijan. August 9. Nuclear powers and states under a nuclear umbrella must change their policies and work towards the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. This was stated by the mayor of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, during a memorial ceremony on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the American atomic bombing of the city, Trend reports with reference to TASS .

"As long as nuclear weapons exist, the threat to humanity will only grow," said Shiro Suzuki.

"Leaders of nuclear powers and countries under a nuclear umbrella! You must face the reality that as long as nuclear weapons exist, the threat to humanity will only grow," he noted, stressing that these states must make a sharp turn in their policies and move towards the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Suzuki added that a personal visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki will help the leaders of such states understand the horror of nuclear weapons.

Japan itself is under the US nuclear umbrella.

The ceremony is taking place amid a scandal surrounding the decision of a number of Western ambassadors, primarily the United States, to refrain from visiting Nagasaki due to the city authorities' decision not to invite Israeli representatives to the ceremony in connection with the situation in the Gaza Strip. As a result, the US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel refused to participate in the ceremony. His example was followed by ambassadors from a number of other countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada and France. These countries are represented at the ceremony at the level of consuls and other diplomats. In total, representatives of about 100 countries and regions are taking part in the mourning events in the Peace Park. Diplomats from Russia and Belarus were again not invited to the ceremony in Nagasaki due to the situation in Ukraine. Nagasaki became the second Japanese city after Hiroshima to be subjected to an American nuclear strike in August 1945. The initial target of the B-29 bomber piloted by Major Charles Sweeney was the city of Kokura, located in the north of the island of Kyushu. Due to a combination of circumstances, there was heavy cloud cover over Kokura on the morning of August 9, so Sweeney decided to turn the plane southwest and head for Nagasaki.

There, the Americans also faced bad weather, but the plutonium bomb was eventually dropped. It was almost twice as powerful as the "Little Boy" atomic bomb used in Hiroshima on August 6, but due to imprecise aiming and the local terrain, the damage from the explosion was somewhat reduced. Nevertheless, the consequences of the bombing were catastrophic: 70,000 residents died at the moment of the explosion, the city was practically wiped off the face of the earth. Thousands of people later died from the effects of radiation.

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