Hiroshima in Japan observes 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing

Hiroshima in Japan observed the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing today. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joined the prayers at the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan. He is the first UN chief to attend the memorial event in 12 years. Mr. Guterres said, nuclear weapons are nonsense and they do not guarantee safety but only death and destruction. He said three-quarters of a century later, we must ask what we have learned from the mushroom cloud that swelled above this city in 1945. The UN chief also warned against nuclear weapons buildup amid recent Russia’s military action on Ukraine. Mr. Guterres said crises with grave nuclear undertones are spreading fast in the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.

Mr. Guterres met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after the ceremony and raised alarm over the global retreat in nuclear disarmament. Russia and its ally Belarus were not invited to this year’s peace memorial.

On this day in 1945, the United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. Three days later, it dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II and Japan’s nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.