United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday in Hiroshima launched a strong appeal to world leaders to remove nuclear weapons from their arsenals.
humanity “plays with a loaded gun” in the context of the current crises with nuclear connotations, Mr. Guterres warned on the occasion of the 77th anniversary on Saturday of the American atomic bombing of Japan.
During an annual ceremony held in the Japanese city of Hiroshima to honor the victims of the 1945 bombing, Antonio Guterres said that 77 years ago, “Tens of thousands of people were killed suddenly in this city. Women, children and men were incinerated in an infernal fire. Buildings turned to dust. Survivors were cursed with a radioactive legacy of cancers and other diseases”.
“We have to ask ourselves: what did we learn from the mushroom cloud that swelled over this city? »said the SG of the UN.
For two years, the commemorations of the bombing of Hiroshima – which are attended by survivors, relatives, Japanese officials and certain foreign dignitaries – have taken place in a restricted manner due to the Covid.
Saturday’s ceremony was more important. A silent prayer was held at 8:15 a.m. (local time), when the American bomb devastated the city at the end of the Second World War.
About 140,000 people died as a result of the August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, a toll that includes those who survived the explosion but later died due to radiation.