NAGASAKI - The mayor of Nagasaki on Sunday pushed the Japanese government to take the initiative amid an absence of global leadership to create a world free of nuclear weapons, during a memorial marking the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city.
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue appealed to the government, asking it to sign and ratify a U.N. treaty banning nuclear arsenals which was adopted in 2017 but has yet to come into force.
"If, as with the novel coronavirus which we did not fear until it began spreading among our immediate surroundings, humanity does not become aware of the threat of nuclear weapons until they are used again, we will find ourselves in an irrevocable predicament," he said in his speech at the southwestern Japanese city's Peace Park.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, however, avoided any reference to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons when addressing the crowd which included survivors and families of the victims, casting light on Japan's conflicted position given it is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
After a moment of silence was observed at 11:02 a.m., the exact time of the bombing on Aug. 9, 1945, Taue said recent developments by nuclear-weapon states "go back on the promise" to disarm, and urged the international community to heed calls by atomic-bomb survivors to bring the treaty into effect as soon as possible.
"Among the nuclear-weapon states and countries under the nuclear umbrella there have been voices stating that it is too early for such a treaty," he said. "That is not so. Rather, nuclear arms reductions are far too late in coming."
On the occasion of the annual event, British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki nine years after the bombing, sent a message, saying, "Let us not forget how fragile our civilization remains" and emphasized the "supreme value of human life."
The momentum for international cooperation is weakening, with the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia set to expire in six months. Many worry the world is entering a phase in which there is an increased risk of an unconstrained global arms race.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres also warned that the "historic progress in nuclear disarmament is in jeopardy, as the web of instruments and agreements designed to reduce the danger of nuclear weapons and bring about their elimination is crumbling."
"This alarming trend must be reversed," he said in a message read at the service, which only allowed some 500 guests due to the coronavirus pandemic, about 10 percent of the number in recent years.
While there were representatives from about 70 countries in attendance, Abe's speech was almost a carbon copy of what he said three days ago at a ceremony in Hiroshima, the other Japanese city devastated by an atomic bomb during World War II, where he said the government remains committed to a world free of nuclear weapons.
But due to a decades-old security accord with the United States, Japan has joined with the world's nuclear-weapon states in refusing to participate in the U.N. treaty.
At a press conference later in the day, Abe said Japan will not be part of the treaty although it "shares the same goal" of scrapping nuclear weapons.
"The treaty was created without considering the reality of security," he said. "I have to say the treaty takes a different approach from the standpoint of our country."
On Sunday, the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis ratified the treaty, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
Ireland, Nigeria and Niue also completed ratification procedures for the treaty on Thursday. Before the pact was adopted, nuclear arms were the only weapons of mass destruction not subject to a comprehensive ban.
The treaty now needs six more ratifications to reach the threshold of 50 required for its entry into force.
Despite the heat and occasional rain showers, people visited the park to pray for victims. However, the crowd was smaller than usual, with some coming earlier than in previous years to prevent infection.
"I still remember that day. I can still recall vividly what the bomb did," said 92-year-old survivor Miyako Takashima. "I was so shocked that I was out of words and couldn't even cry that day."
"I felt a sense of guilt that I survived when so many of my friends didn't. We don't need something in the world that makes you feel that way or that creates sadness," she said.
An early-morning service was held at a nearby cathedral. Nagasaki has numerous sites linked to the history of Japan's Christians, who were persecuted in the 17th to 19th centuries.
Pope Francis visited Nagasaki and Hiroshima last year, where he delivered powerful anti-nuclear messages of peace.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the nine nuclear-armed states -- Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States -- together had an estimated 13,400 nuclear warheads at the start of 2020.
An estimated 214,000 people died from the two bombings, the world's only nuclear attacks in war, by the end of 1945.
This year, Nagasaki has confirmed a further 3,406 deaths of survivors, bringing the number of deaths of people recognized as victims to 185,982. Hiroshima has registered a total of 324,129 such deaths.
The combined number of hibakusha, or survivors of the atomic bombings, stood at 136,682 as of March, down about 9,200 from a year earlier, the welfare ministry said, adding their average age was 83.31.
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