Japan marks 77th anniversary of atomic bombing of Hiroshima

TOKYO, Japan - Japan marked the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of its western city of Hiroshima on Saturday.

At a memorial ceremony held at the Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui cautioned in the Peace Declaration that dependence on nuclear deterrence is gaining momentum in the world.

"We must immediately render all nuclear buttons meaningless," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attended the ceremony, warning that a new arms race is accelerating.

People walk along the water across from the Atomic Bomb Dome (L) as others attend the annual memorial ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (back C) in Hiroshima on August 6, 2022, to mark 77 years since the world's first atomic bomb attack. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP)

A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m. local time, the exact moment a uranium bomb dropped from a U.S. bomber detonated over the city on Aug. 6, 1945, killing around 140,000 people by the end of the year.

While Japan inwardly looks at the tragedies it had experienced at the end of World War II, historians and political minds of the international community have encouraged Japan to come to see themselves not as merely victims of the atomic bombings but also as the perpetrators who led to these tragic incidents to happen in the first place.

Japan brutally occupied many parts of Asia before and during World War II, causing untold suffering and death to hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. - XINHUA