Photo/Illutration Visitors bow their heads at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park during a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing. (Shinnosuke Ito)

HIROSHIMA—The mayor of Hiroshima called for world peace on the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing, expressing concerns about Russia’s prolonged war in Ukraine and Israel’s ongoing attack on the Gaza Strip.

“I wonder if the state of the world is deepening doubt and suspicion among nations and the public’s belief that one must resort to force to resolve international problems,” Kazumi Matsui said in his peace declaration on Aug. 6.

Speaking at the annual Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, Matsui emphasized that a breakthrough is possible in the present critical situation if world leaders sit down for talks with unflinching determination.

He said, “We need peace,” quoting from the words of Mikhail Gorbachev, a former Soviet Union president, who helped end the Cold War along with Ronald Reagan, his U.S. counterpart.

Matsui called for public action to encourage political leaders who depend on nuclear deterrence to change their policies.

Matsui urged the government to participate, as an observer, in the third meeting of state parties under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to be held in March and join the treaty at an early date.

As in the past two years, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida did not touch on the treaty in his speech at the ceremony.

“The situation surrounding nuclear disarmament is becoming increasingly difficult,” said Kishida, who represents a constituency in Hiroshima Prefecture.

“The world stands on the brink of a critical point where the downward trend in the number of nuclear weapons could reverse. We will do our utmost to achieve a world without nuclear weapons and a lasting peace,” he said.

After the ceremony, Kishida met with representatives of the organizations of hibakusha, atomic bomb survivors, at a hotel in Hiroshima.

When asked to send an observer to the meeting of state parties to the nuclear ban treaty, Kishida only said, “The reality will not change unless the world moves nuclear powers into action.”

The representatives criticized the government stance after the meeting.

“The prime minister is turning his back on (ratifying the treaty),” said hibakusha Toshiyuki Mimaki, 82, chairman of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. “Japan experienced atomic bombings but is complying with the wishes of the United States.”

Participants at the ceremony, held at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, commemorated victims of the atomic bombing by a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m., the exact time when the bomb detonated.

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