Nagasaki Mayor Denounces Nuclear Deterrence at 81st Bombing Anniversary

Nagasaki marked the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Sunday, with Mayor Shiro Suzuki denouncing nuclear deterrence as an "absolute evil" and urging the Japanese government to uphold its nonnuclear principles amid a national debate over defense policy. The ceremony at Nagasaki Peace Park was attended by representatives from more than 90 countries and featured a moment of silence at 11:02 a.m., the exact time the plutonium bomb, known as "Fat Man," detonated over the city on August 9, 1945.

The attack killed an estimated 70,000 people by the end of 1945, coming three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In his Peace Declaration, Mayor Suzuki directly challenged the growing global reliance on nuclear weapons for security. "Nuclear weapons are not a necessary evil but an absolute evil, and can never coexist with humanity," he stated. Suzuki warned that the theory of nuclear deterrence is "extremely dangerous and fragile," arguing that increased reliance on such arsenals heightens the risk of nuclear war. He specifically called on the Japanese government to strictly adhere to its three postwar nonnuclear principles: not possessing, not producing, and not...