Eighty-one years after a U.S. atomic bomb turned the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki into a landscape of unspeakable destruction, city leaders, global delegates, and aging atomic bomb survivors gathered Sunday at Nagasaki’s Peace Park to honor the tens of thousands killed and reaffirm a urgent call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The solemn commemoration unfolded against a charged political backdrop: the newly formed Japanese government under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has implemented sweeping revisions to national defense policy that expand the military’s offensive capabilities, stoking widespread anxiety that the government may abandon the decades-old non-nuclear framework that has defined Japan’s post-WWII identity.
Nagasaki marks 81st atomic bomb anniversary as mayor says nuclear deterrence only increases risk
