Nagasaki commemorates 81st anniversary of atomic bombing amid debate over Japan's nuclear policy

Nagasaki observed the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Sunday, with officials and representatives from more than 90 countries gathering at the Peace Park. Mayor Shiro Suzuki used the occasion to call nuclear weapons "absolute evil" and warned that reliance on nuclear deterrence heightens the risk of nuclear conflict. > "The theory of nuclear deterrence is extremely dangerous and fragile. Nuclear weapons are not a ‘necessary evil’ but an ‘absolute evil,’ and can never coexist with humanity," Suzuki said.

He urged the Japanese government to uphold its three post-war non-nuclear principles, attend the upcoming review conference of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and remain consistent with the pacifist constitution. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who attended the ceremony, said Japan will pursue a "realistic and pragmatic approach" toward a world without nuclear weapons and emphasized that the country will continue to work within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. She did not address the prohibition treaty, which Japan has not signed because of the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

The ceremony included a moment of silence at 11:02 a.m., marking the time a B-29 aircraft dropped the plutonium bomb known as "Fat Man" on August 9, 1945. The attack killed an estimated 70,000 people by the end of that year, following the Hiroshima bombing three days earlier. Survivors, whose numbers have dwindled to about 91,000, voiced concerns that the government’s stance on nuclear deterrence contradicts the memory of the bombings.