Hiroshima marked the 78th anniversary of the city's atomic bombing by the United States on Sunday after its nuclear legacy took center stage when the western Japan city hosted the summit of the Group of Seven major economies in May.

In the annual Peace Declaration delivered at the ceremony in the Peace Memorial Park, Mayor Kazumi Matsui hailed the G-7 leaders' historic visit to the park and its atomic bomb museum as proof that the "spirit" of Hiroshima had reached them, but also urged policymakers to abandon the idea that nuclear weapons deter war.

"Leaders around the world must confront the reality that nuclear threats now being voiced by certain policymakers reveal the folly of nuclear deterrence theory," Matsui said, adding, "They must immediately take concrete steps to lead us from the dangerous present toward our ideal world."

A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., the exact time when the uranium bomb was dropped by the U.S. bomber Enola Gay and detonated over the city on Aug. 6, 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of the year.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in his speech at the event that the "path to nuclear disarmament has become more perilous due to deepening international divisions and nuclear threats by Russia."

"It is crucial to reinvigorate international momentum toward a world without nuclear weapons once again," he added.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers a speech at a ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 2023, at the Peace Memorial Park in the city. (Kyodo)

Among the outcomes of the summit was the G-7's first-ever joint document on nuclear disarmament, titled the Hiroshima Vision, which calls the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty the "cornerstone" of nonproliferation and the "foundation" for disarmament.

A lawmaker whose constituency is in the city, Kishida was instrumental in bringing the G-7 leaders to Hiroshima as part of his aim to promote efforts toward disarmament amid growing fears of nuclear war following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On the first day of the summit, the leaders of the G-7, including nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States, made an unprecedented joint visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and met 86-year-old atomic bomb survivor Keiko Ogura.

In a statement read by Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that more should follow the leaders' example in visiting the city "because the drums of nuclear war are beating once again."

"I believe our spirit is now engraved in their hearts," Matsui said in referring to the leaders and also called on other policymakers to come to the city.

Kishida said the visit had allowed the leaders to engage with the reality of the bombing. He emphasized the contribution of the disarmament vision, saying, "International society's momentum toward a world without nuclear weapons has increased" as a result of them.

However, the document's reception by atomic bomb survivors, known as hibakusha, has been mixed. A Kyodo News survey conducted after the summit showed the statement was viewed negatively by 51.7 percent of those polled, of which 59 percent cited the lack of any mention of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Japan has not participated in the treaty, which went into effect in January 2021 and bans the use of nuclear arms. Instead, it continues to back the nonproliferation treaty.

In a meeting with representatives of atomic bomb survivors' groups after the ceremony, Kishida responded to their calls for Japan to join the ban treaty by saying only that he would work towards getting nuclear-armed nations involved.

Divergent views on the path to disarmament were apparent among those paying respects at the park.

Kunio Otani, a 77-year-old in-utero survivor who was in his mother's womb when she entered the city in the days after the attack, said the summit had been "one step forward and one back" on disarmament. "It's no good for a prime minister from Hiroshima," he said.

Conversely, Keiko Kubota, a second-generation hibakusha, said the summit and its outcomes were a "big first step."

"I know survivors' groups say it hasn't been effective for disarmament, but I don't agree. It will show its effect from now on," said the 61-year-old, who lost eight family members to the bomb and its subsequent effects.

While Matsui welcomed the G-7 leaders' joint vision document, he also urged Japan to join the nuclear weapons ban treaty and participate at least as an observer at the second meeting of the parties to the treaty, set for November.

Among the 50,000 people in attendance at the Hiroshima commemoration were representatives from 111 countries and the European Union, the highest number on record. Like last year, Russia and Belarus were not invited due to the invasion of Ukraine.

One of the attendees reflecting on the attack was Takumi Matsumae, 79, who was a baby when the atomic bomb struck about 1.3 kilometers from the home where he lived with his mother. He was crushed under the fallen building until a passerby heard his cries and lifted him from the rubble to save his life.

"From my youth, I heard about this man I owed my life to. I even tried to go to his home and speak with him many times, but in the end, we never met. Every year, when I come to the ceremony, I think about my gratitude to him, this man I don't know," Matsumae said.

Three days after Hiroshima was leveled by the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy," the United States dropped a second device on the southwestern city of Nagasaki. World War II ended six days later, when Japan surrendered to the Allied forces.

Government figures, as of the end of March, showed there were 113,649 officially recognized survivors of both attacks, down 5,346 from the previous year, with their average age standing at over 85.

While 9,350 hibakusha died in fiscal 2022, the decline in the total figure was partially offset by an expansion in recognitions from April 2022 of some individuals exposed to radioactive "black rain" that followed the bombings.

Source: kyodo