Japan, 76th anniversary Hiroshima: mayor asks for ratification of the UN Treaty

The Japanese city of Hiroshima commemorates the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombing of August 6, 1945 and asks the Tokyo government to “immediately” ratify the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. The mayor, Kazumi Matsui, asked the executive to ratify the agreement adopted on July 7, 2017, opened for signature in New York on September 20, 2017, which entered into force on January 22, 2021, i.e. 90 days after ratification by 50 states. . The annual ceremony was held in a reduced format due to the pandemic situation and began with the minute of silence at 8.15 am, the time when the bomb – ‘Little Boy’ – fell on Hiroshima, causing the instant death of 70,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more. In his speech, Matsui stressed the importance of combining individual efforts to push nuclear-armed states to change their policies, an action he entrusted to young people. “The path towards abolition will not be easy, but a ray of hope shines in young people”, he said, stressing that “nuclear weapons are the greatest human violence”. “On this day, 76 years ago, a single nuclear weapon caused unimaginable suffering for the inhabitants of this city, killing tens of thousands of people instantly, tens of thousands after the bombing and many more in the years to follow.” , underlined the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on the occasion of the anniversary. “The only guarantee against the use of nuclear weapons is their total elimination.”