Tokyo, Japan:
The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have invited US President Donald Trump to go to this yr for the eightieth anniversary of the World Conflict II atomic bombings, officers mentioned Wednesday.
In a joint letter to Trump, the mayors urge him to return and “hearken to the testimonies of the hibakusha (bomb survivors) in individual, take to coronary heart their fervent want for peace, and deepen your understanding of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons”.
“It’s our honest hope that you’ll break free from the notion of nuclear reliance and take sturdy management within the abolition of nuclear weapons and the conclusion of lasting world peace,” mentioned the January 28 letter shared with AFP on Wednesday.
The US dropped an atomic bomb on every Japanese metropolis on August 6 and 9, 1945 — the one instances nuclear weapons have been utilized in warfare. Days later Japan surrendered.
Round 140,000 folks died in Hiroshima and a few 74,000 others in Nagasaki together with many who survived the explosions however died later from radiation publicity.
Washington has by no means apologised for the bombings.
US ambassador John Roos in 2010 turned the primary US consultant to attend the annual Hiroshima commemoration and went to the Nagasaki occasion two years later.
Barack Obama turned the primary sitting US president to return to Hiroshima in 2016, adopted by Joe Biden in 2023.
Trump didn’t make the journey throughout his first time period, regardless of the 2 mayors inviting him in keeping with Japanese media.
Final yr, Nagasaki’s mayor Shiro Suzuki sparked a furore by not inviting Israel’s ambassador to the ceremony.
Suzuki insisted the choice was “not political” however to keep away from doable protests associated to the Gaza battle.
The ambassadors of the US, Israel, Britain and others snubbed the ceremony in protest and attended a smaller memorial occasion in Tokyo as a substitute.
Final yr’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots motion of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors pushing for a nuclear weapons ban.
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