Japan marks the 72nd anniversary of Hiroshima Atomic Bombing: Prime Minister Abe Calls For A World Free Of Nuclear Weapons

Japan just celebrated the 72n anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima last Sunday. In the said national affair, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a move toward having a world free of nuclear weapons.

With relations to world history, the United States dropped an atomic bomb in the conclusion and final days of World War II. The celebration highlighted several activities and it started with Prime Minister Abe delivering a speech at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.

According to Telegraph, It was August 6, 1945, when the U.S. dropped the bomb and this killed 140,000 people. Because of its ill effects, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged that the absolute evil of nuclear weaponry be eliminated and removed completely. Moreover, a minute of silence was also offered for the dead who were the poor victims of the said bombing.

Mayor Kazumi also took advantage of the annual memorial ceremony to urge the government o create a treaty which has the purpose of banning nuclear weapons altogether. Last month, the 122 members of the United Nations drafted and adopted the first treaty in the world to ban nuclear weapons.

But it turned out that Japan, as well as the rest of the world's nuclear weapon states under the nuclear umbrella of the United States, refused to participate in the said treaty. It was also reported that the preamble of the treaty even uses the word, "hibakusha" which means the "unacceptable suffering" experienced by the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

During the celebration, Japan Times reported that Mayor Matsui did not already urge Japan to join the treaty but he suggested that the government should use its power to bridge the gap between the non-nuclear weapon states and the nuclear weapon countries. Further, he said that the country should manifest pacifism in their Constitution and thus facilitate the ratification.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abe avoided mentioning anything from the U.N. nuclear weapons ban treaty in his ceremonial speech. But he reiterated that to achieve this goal, the nuclear weapon states, and the non-nuclear weapon states should participate.