US role in nuclear bombings omitted at commemoration events

Japanese and UN officials once again failed to say who attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The United States’ role in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki 80 years ago went unmentioned during the city’s commemoration events on Friday, continuing a long-standing practice at such memorials.

Speeches by Japanese and international officials focused on the destruction caused by the bomb and calls for nuclear disarmament, but avoided naming the US as the country that carried out the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final stage of World War Two.

“We must pass down as memories what unfolded here in Japan 80 years ago — the reality and the tragedy of war, and the brutal impact of the harm wrought by the atomic bombings,” Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in remarks delivered by his disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu, urged nations to “move from words to action by strengthening the global disarmament regime,” with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at its core.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki called on world leaders to present a “specific course of action for achieving the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

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The US remains the only nation to have used nuclear weapons in warfare – a fact that was also left unacknowledged during Wednesday’s commemoration of the Hiroshima bombing.

The attacks killed an estimated 200,000 civilians and have been defended by US officials as necessary to avoid a costly invasion of Japan. However, a 1946 US Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that “Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped.”

Last month, the US carried out airstrikes on three Iranian sites tied to Tehran’s nuclear program. Washington said the attacks were aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, a goal Tehran denies pursuing.

Under the NPT, signatories, including the Islamic Republic, are entitled to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Several nations, including Russia and China, have accused the US of seriously undermining global non-proliferation efforts with its strikes on the Iranian facilities.