Japan Marks 80 Years Since Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki

In Japan, thousands bowed their heads in prayer in Nagasaki on Saturday, August 9, 2025 to mark the 80th anniversary of the city’s atomic bombing, as the mayor Shiro Suzuki warned that current global conflicts could push the world again into nuclear war. The western Japanese city was leveled on August 9, 1945, when the United States dropped a 10 thousand-pound plutonium-239 bomb, nicknamed ‘Fat Man’, instantly killing some 27 thousand of the city’s estimated two lakh people. By the end of 1945, the death toll from acute radiation exposure had reached about 70 thousand. Nagasaki’s destruction came three days after a US uranium-235 bomb destroyed Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War Two.The commemoration event at the Nagasaki Peace Park, located near the hypocenter, was attended by some 2,600 people, including officials from 94 countries and regions, as well as the European Union.Fumi Takeshita, an 83-year-old survivor who said she has suffered from various cancers since being exposed exposed to the bombing, stressed that nuclear weapons must never be allowed. "They are not like ordinary weapons, they come with radiation, and once it's taken into the body, it never leaves." Twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, a Catholic church heavily destroyed by the atomic blast and later rebuilt, rang in unison at 11:02 a.m. for the first time in 80 years.