HIROSHIMA DAY: “Nuclear Shadow Looms over Globe Again” UN Secretary General said
The shadow of nuclear war has re-emerged now that some countries are threatening with the use of nuclear weapons, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his message.
“The drums of nuclear war are beating once again. Mistrust and division are on the rise. The nuclear shadow that loomed over the Cold War has re-emerged. And some countries are recklessly rattling the nuclear saber once again, threatening to use these tools of annihilation,” according to his address, read by Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, at a memorial event at Hiroshima Peace Memorial on the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Guterres also urged for a complete rejection of nuclear weapons. He pointed out that “eliminating nuclear weapons remains the United Nations’ highest disarmament priority.”
“The only way to eliminate the nuclear risk is to eliminate nuclear weapons,” the top UN official noted. “We will not rest until the nuclear shadow has been lifted once and for all,” he concluded.
The Dangerous Ukrainian War for Western “political cynicism”
Instead last week the former Italian ambassador to Tehran and Beijing, diplomat Alberto Bradanini, blamed the NATO summit in an interview with TASS.
“If peace were the focal point of the discussion in Vilnius, we would have had a compromise proposal to work on, not an insistent demand to withdraw Russian troops from Ukrainian territories, which is tantamount to demanding that Russia admit defeat, although it dominates the battlefield among other things,” the diplomat went on to say.
“Some will say that this is unfair. History will judge, it has always taught that wars end in compromise if they do not end in the complete defeat of one side. But, as influential observers point out, defeat for Russia, a country possessing 6,000 nuclear warheads, cannot be considered. NATO nevertheless wants the war to continue, at the cost of Ukrainians’ lives, thus confirming its political irresponsibility and cynicism in self-proclaiming themselves as masters of the world,” Bradanini said.
Moment of Silence in Japan
Japan observed a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombing perpetrated by the US, which took tens of thousands of lives 78 years ago.
The memorial ceremony took place in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the center of the city. A moment of silence was traditionally announced throughout the country at exactly 08:15 a.m. local time (02:15 a.m. Moscow time) — the time when an atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The ceremony is attended by Kazumi Matsui, mayor of the city of Hiroshima, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The US Armed Forces carried out the first-ever atomic bombing in history, striking the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward the tail end of World War II. The bombings were justified as a way to accelerate the capitulation of the Empire of Japan. These attacks are the sole instance of nuclear weapons ever being used in a military conflict in the history of humanity.
According to various estimates, the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, in one day killed between 70,000 and 100,000 people. By the end of 1945, the number of victims had increased to 140,000 due to those who died in hospitals from wounds and radiation.
Every year this sad list is replenished when a survivor dies. Almost 5,000 new names have been added to this list over the past year. Besides that, the names of those people who died during the blast but whose death has not been confirmed until now are added to the list. Currently, the total number of victims surpasses 350,000.
Originally published by TASS Russian News Agency
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