TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th August, 2019) A minute of silence was observed in memory of victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing on Friday, the 74th anniversary of the tragedy, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and guests from about 70 countries participating in the memorial ceremony.
A minute of silence was observed at 11:02 a.m. local time (02:02 a.m. GMT) � the exact time the 21-kiloton atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki 74 years ago.
Participants of the memorial ceremony laid wreaths of yellow and white chrysanthemums. In total, the ceremony was attended by over 5,000 people.
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue addressed the event by reading out the Declaration of Peace.
"I particularly call on the United States and Russia to take responsibility as nuclear superpowers and show the world concrete steps towards drastic reduction of nuclear weapons," the mayor added.
Taue also called on the Japanese government to sign and ratify the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty that was signed at the United Nations in 2017 by 70 countries and subsequently ratified by 25 states.
On August 6, 1945, the US Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing up to 146,000 people, and three days later dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki killing up to 80,000 people. The use of the atomic bombs effectively concluded World War II and the attacks on the two Japanese cities have been the only instances of the use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict.
