Tokyo: The mayor of Nagasaki, the second of two cities ever attacked with an atomic bomb, blamed the world's nuclear powers for stalled efforts toward disarmament on Wednesday as he marked the 61st anniversary of the bombing.
Mayor Itcho Ito blamed countries with nuclear arms, including the US and North Korea, for not working earnestly toward nuclear disarmament.
”The US is acquiescing in India's nuclear development and is in the process of building up a system for nuclear technology cooperation,” he told a memorial service in the Japanese city attended by nearly 5,000 survivors, officials and guests and broadcast on national television.
He said North Korea, which claims to possess nuclear weapons, is “threatening the peace and stability of Japan, as well as the rest of the world.”
Ito also said that an international pact to prevent nuclear proliferation was “on the verge of collapsing.”
Participants in the service at Peace Memorial Park, just a few hundred meters from the centre of the blast, observed a moment of silence at 1102 hours IST, when the bomb was dropped 61 years ago.
Kikuyo Nakamura, 82, said she was concerned that many of those who survived the bombing had died and that the atomic attack could soon be forgotten.
”I will never forget what happened 61 years ago. Now I feel compelled to tell others how stupid, scary and cruel the war was,” Nakamura said.
Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan would honour its pacifist constitution, which prevents it from seeking or developing nuclear weapons and uphold the principle of nuclear nonproliferation.
About 4,800 people attended the ceremony including embassy officials representing seven countries, according to city official Mika Matsuo.
Wednesday's ceremony followed a memorial service on Sunday in Hiroshima, where about 45,000 people gathered in the city's peace park.
On August 6, 1945, US bomber Enola Gay had dropped the “Little Boy” bomb on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 in the world's first atomic bomb attack.
Three days later, the B-29 bomber Bock's Car dropped a bomb dubbed “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. Estimates of the immediate death toll range from 60,000 to 80,000.
Nagasaki officials say about 74,000 people died.
Nagasaki added 2,831 people this year to a list of those who have died from aftereffects, putting the total number of the city's bomb fatalities at 140,144.
Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending World War II.
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