Nagasaki at 81 warns Japan against nuclear deterrence shift

At the Nagasaki anniversary, Mayor Shiro Suzuki denounced nuclear deterrence and urged Tokyo to uphold all three non-nuclear principles. His warning sharpened tensions with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's security stance and survivors' fears that Japan may dilute its post-war commitments.

In Short

• Mayor Shiro Suzuki urged Tokyo to honour all three non-nuclear principles
• Takaichi stayed vague on banning nuclear arms from entering Japan
• Tokyo again avoided the nuclear ban treaty, citing US security cover

Nagasaki marked the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombing on Sunday, with Mayor Shiro Suzuki calling nuclear weapons an "absolute evil" and warning against growing support for nuclear deterrence. He also urged the Japanese government to follow the country’s three post-war non-nuclear principles.

The anniversary came as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government revises Japan’s defence policy to further strengthen the military’s offensive capability. The move has fuelled speculation over whether Takaichi, who supports nuclear dissuasion, may allow nuclear weapons to be brought into the country, which would go against the third non-nuclear principle.

Suzuki said some countries argue that possessing nuclear weapons helps deter attacks, but the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed that people can cross that line. "The theory of nuclear deterrence is extremely dangerous and fragile. Nuclear weapons are not a necessary evil but an absolute evil, and can never coexist with humanity," he said. "To all leaders of the nuclear states and nations relying on nuclear deterrence, you must face the reality that the more you rely on nuclear deterrence, the more you increase the risk of a nuclear war."

The United States dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 people by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing World War II to an end and ending its nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.

Representatives from more than 90 countries attended the ceremony at Nagasaki’s Peace Park and observed a moment of silence at 11:02 a.m., the time when a B-29 dropped the plutonium bomb known as "Fat Man". Suzuki directly called on the Japanese government to uphold the country’s war-renouncing Constitution, attend the review conference of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons later this year, and stick to the three non-nuclear principles.

Takaichi supports the first two principles, of not possessing and not developing nuclear weapons. The prime minister, who attended Sunday’s ceremony, repeated her policy of taking "a realistic and pragmatic approach" towards achieving a world without nuclear weapons. As she had done in Hiroshima, she remained unclear on the third non-nuclear principle and said only that Japan currently maintains the policy.

In her speech, Takaichi did not mention the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which Tokyo has refused to sign because Japan is under the protection of the US nuclear umbrella. She later told reporters that Japan’s policy is to work within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and that her government would decide what to do on the treaty based on what is most effective for the country’s national security and for advancing nuclear disarmament.

Survivors have expressed frustration and have criticised the Japanese government’s support for nuclear deterrence as insincere. Growing concern over Takaichi’s possible easing of the non-nuclear principles has led to protests by hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their numbers have fallen to 91,105, about a quarter of the original total, and their average age is now over 86, adding to fears that memories of the bombing are fading.

The anniversary in Nagasaki therefore became both a remembrance of the 1945 bombing and a renewed warning against nuclear weapons, as survivors, city leaders and the national government continued to differ over Japan’s path on deterrence, disarmament and the non-nuclear principles.

With PTI Inputs

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