The latest news on Japan. 6 August 1945. US naval intelligence finally gives the go-ahead for take-off. In the previous days, clouds had covered the skies over Hiroshima, Japan, but the United States needed to be sure that what they were about to do must be clearly seen. Three B-29s take off from the Mariana Islands at around 2 a.m., carrying a single bomb as cargo. At around 6:00am, the Japanese radar system detects the intrusion of the planes into their airspace, but as there is no bombing over the cities, they decide to withdraw the public alarm. The population resumes its daily routine until 8:15 a.m. local time. That is when the bomb detonates.
The chronicles can attest to the size and scope of the explosion in geographical and physical terms, such as a column 270m in diameter that raised its temperature to more than a million degrees, but it is more important to remember the 70,000 lives that evaporated in a single second, and the hundreds of thousands that were forever marked by it, the so-called 'hibakusha'. Today marks the 80th anniversary of that day, and although a tribute is held every year, on this 80th anniversary the message of the Peace Bell being rung from the Peace Bell Park in Hiroshima is even more significant: Eliminate nuclear weapons completely.
The audience is the right one, of course. More than 120 representatives of countries (some of them current nuclear powers) listened to the call for peace and solidarity around the world made by the city's mayor Kazumi Matsui, as he called on his Prime Minister (also present) for Japan to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), as it is currently only a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Shigeru Ishiba, for his part, reiterated the Japanese government's position of promoting a world without war and nuclear weapons under this treaty at a time when "the division of the international community over nuclear disarmament is deepening and the current security environment is becoming increasingly hardened".
The war in Ukraine and the escalation in the Middle East have renewed military build-up around the world. "These developments blatantly ignore the lessons that the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history. They threaten to tear down the peacebuilding frameworks they have worked so hard to build," said Kazumi Matsui.
"Our young people, the leaders of future generations, must recognise that misguided policies on military spending, national security and nuclear weapons could have absolutely inhumane consequences.
Between the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an estimated 210,000 people were killed on the spot or in the days that followed, and another 150,000 were injured and scarred forever by radiation and nuclear fire. May their memory never be forgotten.