MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2020) On the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima Atomic Bombing, Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) reiterated the call for the humankind to abolish nuclear weapons "at the earliest possible date."
Thursday marks 75 years since the US military began the world's first atomic bomb attack, with the target placed on Japan's city of Hiroshima, followed three days later by another attack on Nagasaki.
"In this 75th summer of the first atomic bombing by the U.S. military, we the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reiterate our call to all the people and States of the world to achieve the 'abolition of nuclear weapons at the earliest possible date'," Nihon Hidankyo said in a statement sent to Sputnik.
The confederation, whose mottoes are "No more Hibakusha!" and "Prevent nuclear war! Abolish nuclear weapons!" admitted that while the Japanese population suffered a lot in the years of World War II, the worst carnage it endured was from the atomic bombings.
"The A-bombs burned with a flash of light and blew people away with the blast. They completely destroyed the people and all living things as well as the two cities. It was a hell on earth beyond all imagination," the Nihon Hidankyo said.
The survivors of the bombings are called hibakusha in Japan. Now the average age of these hibakusha is 83 years old and nearly 10,000 of them die year by year according to the data from the confederation.
Nihon Hidankyo says that during the 75 years, the Hibakusha have been tormented by radiation-related diseases and the fear of them, they lost jobs as a result of poor health and faced discrimination and prejudice.
"Even today, the atomic bombing continues to inflict 'physical, economic and emotional pains' on the Hibakusha," it admitted.
Some 650,000 people have been recognized by the Japanese government as hibakusha, a term for those who were exposed to radiation from the nuclear bombings.
On August 6, US B-29 warplane Enola Gay dropped a bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima in the southwest of Japan. Some 120,000 residents of the city were killed, with thousands more dead from radiation-related illnesses. Three days later, on August 9, Washington detonated another bomb dubbed "Fat Man" over Nagasaki, instantly killing more than 80,000 people.
The bombings caused Japan to surrender on August 15, bringing World War II to an end.
