The southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on Saturday marked 80 years because the U.S. atomic attack that killed tens of hundreds and left survivors who hope their harrowing memories may help make their hometown the last place on Earth to be hit by a nuclear bomb.
America launched the Nagasaki attack on Aug. 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the top of that 12 months, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending the Second World War and the nearly half-century of aggression by the country across Asia.
About 2,600 people, including representatives from greater than 90 countries, attended a memorial event at Nagasaki Peace Park, where Mayor Shiro Suzuki and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke, amongst other guests.
People observe a minute of silence on the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, during a ceremony to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Japanese southwestern city, in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.
Eugene Hoshiko/ The Associated Press
At 11:02 a.m., the precise time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, participants observed a moment of silence as a bell rang.
“Even after the war ended, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror,” 93-year-old survivor Hiroshi Nishioka said in his speech on the memorial, noting that many who had survived without severe wounds began bleeding from gums and losing hair and died.
“Never use nuclear weapons again, or we’re finished,” he said.
Doves released
Dozens of doves, a logo of peace, were released after a speech by Suzuki, whose parents are survivors of the attack.
He said that the town’s memories of the bombing are “a standard heritage and must be passed down for generations” in and outdoors Japan.
August 9, 2025: Doves are released during a memorial ceremony held at Peace Park in Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 2025, to mark the eightieth anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city in the course of the Second World War.
Credit: Kyodonews via ZUMA Press
“The existential crisis of humanity has change into imminent to every one in all us living on Earth,” Suzuki said.
“With the intention to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and eternally, we’ll go hand-in-hand with global residents and devote our utmost efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the belief of everlasting world peace.”
‘A world without war’
Survivors and their families gathered Saturday in rainy weather at Peace Park and nearby Hypocenter Park, positioned below the bomb’s exact detonation spot, hours before the official ceremony.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the globe, enroll for breaking news alerts delivered on to you once they occur.
“I simply seek a world without war,” said Koichi Kawano, an 85-year-old survivor who laid flowers on the hypocenter monument decorated with colourful origami paper cranes and other offerings.
Paper cranes are placed with messages against nuclear weapons within the park marking the hypocenter of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, southwestern Japan, on Aug. 9, 2025, the eightieth anniversary of the attack in the course of the Second World War.
Credit: Kyodonews via ZUMA Press
Some others prayed at churches in Nagasaki, home to Catholic converts who went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution in Japan’s feudal era.
The dual bells at Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed within the bombing, also rang together again after one in all the bells that had gone missing following the attack was restored by volunteers.
Despite their pain from wounds, discrimination and illnesses from radiation, survivors have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they worry in regards to the world moving in the other way.
Passing down lessons
Aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki now put their hopes of achieving nuclear weapons abolition within the hands of younger people, telling them the attack isn’t distant history, but a difficulty that continues to be relevant to their future.
“There are only two things I long for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and prohibition of war,” said Fumi Takeshita, an 83-year-old survivor.
“I seek a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everybody can live in peace.”
Within the hope of passing down the teachings of history to current and future generations, Takeshita visits schools to share her experience with children.
“While you grow up and remember what you learned today, please think what each of you possibly can do to forestall war,” Takeshita told students during a faculty visit earlier this week.
A girl offers prayer within the rain on the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, as Japan commemorates the eightieth anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on its southwestern city, in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.
Eugene Hoshiko/ The Associated Press
Teruko Yokoyama, an 83-year-old member of a Nagasaki organization supporting survivors, said that she thinks of the growing absence of those she had worked with, and that fuels her desire to document the lives of others who’re still alive.
The variety of survivors has fallen to 99,130, a few quarter of the unique number, with their average age exceeding 86. Survivors worry about fading memories, because the youngest of the survivors were too young to obviously recall the attack.
“We must keep records of the atomic bombing damages of the survivors and their lifetime story,” said Yokoyama, whose two sisters died after suffering illnesses linked to radiation.
Her organization has began to digitize the narratives of survivors for viewing on YouTube and other social media platforms with the assistance of a brand new generation.
“There are younger people who find themselves starting to take motion,” Yokoyama told The Associated Press on Friday. “So I believe we don’t need to get depressed yet.”
Nagasaki hosted a “peace forum” on Friday where survivors shared their stories with greater than 300 young people from across the country. Seiichiro Mise, a 90-year-old survivor, said that he’s handing seeds of “flowers of peace” to the younger generation in hopes of seeing them bloom.
South Korean residents living in Japan and Japanese guests observe a minute of silence for the victims of the atomic bombing, during a memorial service for Korean atomic bomb victims ahead of a ceremony to mark the eightieth anniversary of the bombing near Nagasaki Peace Park, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, in Nagasaki, western Japan.
Eugene Hoshiko/ The Associated Press
Japan’s security dilemma
Survivors are frustrated by a growing nuclear threat and support amongst international leaders for developing or possessing nuclear weapons for deterrence.
They criticize the Japanese government’s refusal to sign and even take part in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as an observer because Japan, as an American ally, says it needs U.S. nuclear possession as deterrence.
In Ishiba’s speech, the prime minister reiterated Japan’s pursuit of a nuclear-free world, pledging to advertise dialogue and cooperation between countries with nuclear weapons and nonnuclear states on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons review conference scheduled for April and May 2026 in Latest York.
Ishiba didn’t mention the nuclear weapons ban treaty.
“Countries must move from words to motion by strengthening the worldwide disarmament regime,” with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, at the middle, complemented by the momentum created by the nuclear weapons ban treaty, said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, in his message read by Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitsu in Nagasaki.
Nagasaki invited representatives from all countries to attend the ceremony on Saturday. The federal government in China notably notified the town that it wouldn’t be present without providing a reason.
The ceremony last 12 months stirred controversy due to the absence of the U.S. ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to ask officials from Israel.