The mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, warned that the threat of nuclear weapons is becoming increasingly real, as the city marked the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing that killed 70,000.
At an event in Nagasaki Peace Park, Mayor Tomihisa Taue read out a peace declaration urging world leaders to do more to urge a ban on nuclear weapons, according to The Associated Press.
In his remarks, Taue urged the US and Russia to increase risks by scrapping the Nuclear Forces Intermediate-Range Treaty, according to the newswire.
“As a result, the threat of using nuclear weapons is becoming more and more real,” Taue said.
He apparently urged the US and Russia to show a workable way for their nuclear disarmament in the review process of Nuclear Proliferation Agreement next year.
Taue also urged the Japanese government and lawmakers to sign the 2017 Treaty banning nuclear weapons, according to the AP.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe criticized the treaty he had repeatedly refused to sign for being unrealistic, adding that none of the nuclear states had cooperated and it was not widely supported by non-nuclear states.
“The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted without regard to the reality of the harsh national security environment,” Abe said at a news conference, according to AP.
He also said that Japan is facing threats from the development and modernization of nuclear weapons from neighboring countries in the region. ‘
Taue disagreed with Abe’s claims, and with the mayor stating that “among the nuclear weapons states and countries under the nuclear umbrella, there have been voices saying it is too early for such a treaty. That is not so. “Nuclear weapons reduction is far too late to come,” according to the AP.
Tokyo is taking off from its own possession, prosecution as host of nuclear weapons, but as a US ally, Japan contains 50,000 US troops and is protected by the US nuclear umbrella, the newswire reports.
Shigemi Fukabori, an 89-year-old survivor who was 14 at the time of the bombing, also spoke at the event representing Nagasaki survivors. Fukabori said he did not want “anyone else to get through here.”
He nearly lost four sisters in the attack, the AP reported.
“Nagasaki bears a responsibility as a witness to catastrophic results that the nuclear weapon has caused to humanity and the environment,” Fukabori said in his speech, according to AP. “I hope that as many people as possible join us, especially the young generations to inherit our path of peace and to move on.”
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