Hiroshima survivors ask for ban on nuclear weapons

Survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and asked him to sign a treaty banning nuclear weapons, RBC reports citing Kyodo.

Kishida replied that he would work to bring the nuclear powers into the treaty. Japan was not a party to the treaty, which came into force in January 2021 and bans the use of nuclear weapons. Instead, the country continues to support the treaty on the non-proliferation of such weapons, the agency notes.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was signed at the UN Headquarters on July 7, 2017. It entered into force on January 22, 2021. The treaty has been signed or ratified by 68 states. There is not a single country among them that has nuclear weapons.

On the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, mourning events are held in the city. In his speech, Kishida stated that "the road to nuclear disarmament has become more dangerous due to the deepening of international divisions".

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui in his speech urged world leaders to "recognize the reality that the nuclear threats now being voiced by some politicians reveal the folly of the theory of nuclear deterrence".

“They must immediately take concrete steps to bring us from the dangerous present to our ideal world,” he said.

The victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, were 140,000 people. On August 9, the US Air Force dropped a bomb on the city of Nagasaki, where 70,000 people died.