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Hiroshima mayor slams nuclear deterrence claims as ‘folly’, marking US nuking of city

Sunday, 06 August 2023 10:01 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 08 August 2023 5:11 AM ]

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui reads out a peace declaration during a ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb attack, at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on August 6, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

Hiroshima mayor has slammed the nuclear deterrence claims of world's Western powers as "folly" while Japan marks the 78th anniversary of the US atomic bombing on the city that massacred nearly 140,000 people and has never apologized for the major crime.

“Leaders around the world must confront the reality that nuclear threats now being voiced by certain policymakers reveal the folly of nuclear deterrence theory,” Mayor Kazumi Matsui said on Sunday, referring to the Group of Seven leaders' idea of justifying such theories.

“They must immediately take concrete steps to lead us from the dangerous present toward our ideal world,” he added.

On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima killing around 140,000 people. Three days later, a second bomber dropped another a-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people.

There has never been an official apology from Washington for its nuclear bombing of the two Japanese cities. The US has rather been careful not to apologize while only expressing sorrow over the colossal destruction it caused.

The US continues to boastfully justify the bombings and the ensuing carnage, contending that they were necessary to end the war and “save lives,” although many historians question that view and insist they were unjustified.

Biden won't apologize for US nuclear massacres in Hiroshima, Nagasaki during Japan visit

The White House says the US president does not intend to apologize for America

In May, when US President Joe Biden was set to visit Hiroshima for the Group of Seven summit, the White House clearly said he will not offer an apology for the United States’ use of nuclear weapons against Japan.

While Biden was scheduled to visit the Hiroshima Memorial Museum with the other six G7 leaders and participate in a wreath-laying and tree-planting ceremony with his counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, some Japanese politicians called for the US to offer an official apology for the atomic bombing of the country.

But like the first US president to visit the memorial site, Barack Obama did not apologize for the use of nuclear weapons when he visited in 2016, the White House said Biden will not do so either.

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