‘Tragedy should not be repeated’, says Japan PM on visit to Hiroshima amid Russia nuclear fears
- Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and US ambassador Rahm Emanuel paid their respects to atomic bombing victims and warned world is again facing nuclear attack
- ‘We should never allow threats or use of nuclear weapons,’ Kishida said after a tour of the peace park and museum in his hometown Hiroshima on Saturday
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida escorted the US ambassador Rahm Emanuel to his hometown Hiroshima on Saturday to pay respects to atomic bombing victims and warned that the world is again facing threats of nuclear attacks stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“As we face a possibility of Russia’s use of nuclear weapons as a realistic concern, I felt strongly (as leader of) the world’s only country to have suffered atomic attacks that we should never allow threats or use of nuclear weapons,” Kishida said after a tour of the peace park and the museum with Emanuel.
“The tragedy should never be repeated,” Kishida said.
Leaders from the Group of Seven countries on Thursday urged Russia not to use biological, chemical or nuclear weapons in its war on Ukraine. That prospect was raised when Russian President Vladimir Putin in February ordered his nation’s nuclear forces put on high alert over tensions with the West.
The August 6, 1945, atomic bombing by the United States killed about 140,000 people and nearly destroyed Hiroshima. Three days later, a second US atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, killing 70,000 more, before Japan surrendered six days later.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “highlights the harsh road toward achieving a world without nuclear weapons,” Kishida said. “As prime minister from Hiroshima, I must firmly send a message (of peace) to the rest of the world.”