After 80 years, the survivors warn against Hiroshima’s bombing of the new nuclear war

Hiroshima, Japan – More than half a century ago, ran out of the Japanese city of Hiroshima every morning at exactly 8:15.

The official rituals set the exact moment on August 6, 1945, when the American launcher fell on the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing about 70,000 people immediately.

On Wednesday, people in Hiroshima celebrated the eighty anniversary of the devastating attack, as nuclear fears worldwide are heading amid military conflicts that were not resolved in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In a one -minute silent honor, the city remembered the death and destruction of the bomb, which has an area of 10,000 pounds, which created a huge mushroom cloud that rose to more than 60,000 feet.

“It is our duty to convey the truth of the atomic bombings not only for the people of Japan but also to the people of the world,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigro Eshiba said in a speech.

Initially, it was supposed to strike a T -shaped bridge, the bomb deviated instead towards an exhibition hall with a distinctive dome, after the explosion it was the only building that was still standing inside a circle of one miles.

The explosion launched a whirlwind of fire and strength, and burned thousands of people. Then came the radioactive black rain, which fell over the city, poisoned more silently.

Tiroko Yahata was eight years old at the time.

Yahata, who is now in her eighties, says she still suffers from a scar from when she was thrown by the explosion. For fear of another bomb, she gathered under a blanket with her family.

Yahata said: “I didn’t really understand what he means to die, but the warmth that I felt for us dies together … I still remember to this day,” Yahata said.

Three days after Hiroshima bombed, the United States fired a second atomic bomb in the city of Nagasaki, which killed 40,000 others immediately.

Most historians say that unprecedented bombings hurried the surrender of the Japanese Empire and the end of World War II, although the price of life is nearly a quarter of a million.

From ash, Hiroshima was rebuilt to a crowded city of more than a million people, attracting tourists from all over the world.

Near Hypocense, where the bomb exploded about 2000 feet, there is a memory Memorial Salam garden that includes the iconic atomic dome. Using virtual reality headphones, visitors can immerse themselves in the bombing and its brutal effects while wandering in the garden.

However, the bombing still feels the visceral of the survivors of Hiroshima, who is called Hibakosha, Or “the damaged bomb”. Now over 86 years old, they have spent most of their lives fighting disease, depression and discrimination.

Kunihiko Iida, whose father was killed in the war and her mother and older sister died shortly after the bombing, now 83 years, and challenged predictions that he will not live until the age of twenty.

Those who say that the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki have saved lives, “do not know the truth of a nuclear bomb.”

Last year, the Japanese survivors group won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, the group’s co -chair, among those who defend nuclear disarmament and ensure that Hiroshima has not forgotten and not repeated.

“We are in a very dangerous situation with Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Iran,” he said. “Even a single nuclear bomb means the disaster.”

According to the international campaign to cancel nuclear weapons (ICAN), the nine armed countries in the world-Russia, the United States, China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea- It spent more than 100 billion dollars On nuclear weapons last year, an increase of 11 % from 2023.

The increase in spending on nuclear weapons contrasts with public attitudes towards them. in Jun surveys to the Americans By the Pew Research Center, 69 % of the respondents said that the development of nuclear weapons made the world less safe, compared to 10 % who said it made the world safer.

Nearly 70 % of the atomic bombs in Japan believe that nuclear weapons can be used again, according to This year survey by the Japanese News Agency Kyodo News.

Hiroshima, the survivor of Sitsuko Thorlow, 93, lost 10 members of her family in the bombing. She said she remembered seeing a procession of people fleeing the hill who “seemed to be ghosts.”

She said: “Everyone was standing, and he rose up, and the skin and meat were released from the bones.”

Thorlow, who went to the United States to study in 1954 – tested a 1000 -time hydrogen bomb from the one that destroyed Hiroshima – her life spent her campaign for nuclear disarmament, and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 on behalf of ICAN.

“I plead with world leaders to stop and reach the negotiating table. Diplomacy needs greater attention,” she said in a video interview from Toronto. “They are not nuclear weapons, but diplomacy, and the exchange of words and ideas.”

Hibakusha’s number diminishes, raising fears that a live memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings will soon be done. As of the end of March, there were 99,130 survivors in the country, according to the Japanese newspaper Ashai Shimbon.

Remembering responsibility is taken by young people like Shun Sasaki, who is 12 years old, who was giving foreign visitors free counseling tours at Hiroshima Memorial Park since he was 7 years old.

Sasaki said that although his great grandmother was among those who were killed in the bombing, for a long time, his family barely recognized.

“The most terrifying thing that may happen in the future is to forget what happened a long time ago,” said Sasaki.

“I don’t want anyone to have the same experience as my great grandmother.”

Sasaki is not the only family to avoid talking about that day. More than 70 % of the respondents in the Kyodo survey said they had never talked about their experiences.

However, some feel that it is their duty to speak.

“As long as I live, I want to continue to say,” Yahata said. “I am a survivor.”

Janis Maki Fryer and May Nishia told Hiroshima and Arata Yamamoto from Tokyo and Michael Fioreno from London and Peter Quh from Hong Kong.