Hiroshima, a reminder to the world | At 74 years old …

On the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the launch of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima by the US government, the mayor of the city, Kazumi Matsui, called on world leaders to sign the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty. He did it during a commemorative act in front of representatives of nearly 90 countries, where he also asked the new generations not to forget or minimize the atomic tragedy.

The bomb launched on October 6, 1945 on the Japanese city of Hiroshima exploded with an intensity of about 16 kilotons, at a height of about 600 meters, near the place of the park where s & # 39; is the ceremony. The impact is immediately over with the lives of some 80,000 people. This number would increase towards the end of 1945, when the number of deaths would have risen to 140,000, and in the following years, radiation victims would have more than doubled. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the United States launched a second nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki, which forced the surrender of Japan and ended the Second World War.

At 8:15 am, the bells rang out in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, recalling the exact moment when the first nuclear bomb in history was dropped from the American Enola Gay aircraft. Then they played the traditional minute of silence. At the event, attended by representatives from about 90 countries, Mayor Matsui read poems and texts written by survivors, in which they evoked the horrors of the attack and demanded that this does not happen for future generations. "We have enough," says one of them.

"To face the current situation and achieve a peaceful and sustainable world, we must transcend differences of status or opinion … To this end, future generations must not reject the atomic bombings and the war. as simple facts of the past, "says the mayor of the city.

Matsui also called for adherence to the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, of which neither the world's nuclear powers nor Japan are a part. "World leaders must go forward and promote the ideal of civil society," he warned. Thus, he urged his country, the only one to have suffered from the nuclear bomb, to sign and ratify the pact and, with him, to show "the leaders to take the next step towards a world without nuclear weapons". The treaty was proposed by the United Nations in July 2017 and is signed by 122 governments. The absence of a political decision by Japan to badociate with it prompted the interrogation of the survivors. They are currently less than 142,000 and have an average age greater than 82 years.

The mayor of the Japanese city has asked the company to adopt a "spirit of tolerance" to fight together against the current difficulties: rising nationalism, rising tensions in terms of exclusivity and rivalry and blocking the nuclear disarmament. "After having lived through two world wars, our elders have pursued an ideal: a world after the war.They promised to put in place a system of international cooperation.We should not remember and, for human survival, fight for this ideal world I ask the following question: especially you, young people who have never known war but who will direct the future, "he said.

For his part, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also said a few words at the ceremony during which he spoke of the goal of achieving a world without these weapons, while avoiding any reference to the treaty.

The new anniversary comes three days after the United States' official release of the 1987 Russian treaty for the elimination of medium and short-range nuclear missiles. The Pentagon has already asked Congress to approve by 2020 a $ 10 million budget to develop missiles until then banned by the treaty.