Olympic Games: the IOC refused to honor the victims of Hiroshima | On the 76th anniversary of the nuclear attack on the Japanese city

Japan recalled on Friday the destruction caused by the atomic bomb launched by the United States 76 years ago in the city of Hiroshima and officially asked the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, to join the commemorative event, but Tokyo 2020 organizers have made it clear that the IOC will not do it on August 6 but during the closing ceremony of the Games on Sunday 8.

The commemorative event was held in Hiroshima Peace Park, where it is customary a minute of silence in memory of the victims and, previously, of the city authorities and the association of “hibakusha” (survivors) had asked the IOC to, with the athletes and national committees currently organizing the event in Japan, join the gesture.

The refusal was not well received in the pacifist city and this adds to the feelings of rejection caused by the Bach’s controversial visit to Hiroshima on July 16 to begin “Olympic truce”, which aims to guarantee the cessation of “political” hostilities during the Games.

This visit was qualified by citizenship as a “dishonor” for the survivors and “Contempt for the health and life of people”, causing strong rejection in Hiroshima.

During the daily press conference, the Games Organizing Committee was asked why the IOC had not heeded this request and Tokyo 2020 spokesperson Masa Takaya replied that “There will be a moment of remembrance and prayer for the lives lost during the closing ceremony and the IOC will try to express its sympathy in this way.”

The act

The ceremony in Hiroshima has been reduced to 10 percent of usual in other years, such as in 2020 due to the pandemic, limiting its aid to 880 participants, including the survivors of the nuclear attack and their descendants, local leaders and representatives of 86 nations and the European Union in Japan.

After the minute’s silence at 8.15 a.m. (local time), The exact moment the United States dropped the nuclear bomb on the city on August 6, 1945, immediately killing nearly 140,000 people.Mayor Kazumi Matsui called for an end to nuclear weapons and world peace.

The mayor underlined the fundamental role of Japan as a mediator between the countries of the world and urged his government to ratify the Nuclear Weapons Protection Treaty: “Our world cannot be sustainable with nuclear weapons created for war.”

The Treaty was approved by the UN in 2017 and entered into force in January to move towards nuclear disarmament, following the ratification by 50 countries including neither Japan nor the United States.

But when it was the turn of the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told the media that “at the moment he has no intention of ratifying the treaty”. “We will study the fact of being members as observers. There are still many countries that have not ratified it,” he said.

After the ceremony, 440 birds flew over the monument dedicated to the Hiroshima victims, a number that rises to 328,902 and which includes those who died that day and later due to the effects of radiation. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, another nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.