Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae delivers a speech at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Thursday, marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. [Reuters]
Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae delivers a speech at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Thursday, marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. [Reuters]

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae reaffirmed Japan's three non-nuclear principles on Thursday, saying the country has "a mission to ceaselessly strive toward the realization of a world without nuclear weapons as the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings in war."

Takaichi made the remarks at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, held at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to mark the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city, according to Kyodo News.

Japan's three non-nuclear principles — not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons — have in effect been treated as national policy for more than half a century.

Some had raised the possibility that the ban on introducing nuclear weapons could be revised after Takaichi, who champions a "strong Japan" agenda, took office. However, she made clear at Thursday's official ceremony that her government would uphold the three principles.

"The global security environment is becoming increasingly severe," she said. "The devastation wrought by the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never be repeated."

She added that "the path to a world without nuclear weapons is by no means smooth, as confirmed at the NPT Review Conference," and pledged to continue calling for the maintenance and strengthening of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty framework "to lead the international community's efforts."

However, as with her predecessor Ishiba Shigeru, Takaichi made no mention of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the ceremony.

Japan has emphasized the horrors of the atomic bombings and the dangers of nuclear weapons use, yet has not joined the treaty — which bans the use and development of nuclear weapons — out of deference to the nuclear umbrella provided by its ally, the United States.

Takaichi noted that the register of atomic bomb victims enshrined at the memorial this year was compiled for the first time with contributions from younger generations selected through a public recruitment process, working alongside atomic bomb survivors. She said the desire for peace was being firmly passed on to the next generation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a message read on his behalf by UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Nakamitsu Izumi, said the world is living through "an era of deepening geopolitical divisions and growing mistrust" in which "the norms that have prevented nuclear catastrophe are under stress," urging the world to heed the lessons of Hiroshima.

Hiroshima Mayor Matsui Kazumi also expressed deep alarm over a global climate in which the use of nuclear weapons could come to be seen as acceptable, in a "Hiroshima Peace Declaration" delivered at the ceremony.

He criticized "the arrogant behavior of major powers that disregard international law" for "shaking the foundations of world peace and stability," and urged action toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The city of Hiroshima announced that representatives from a record 121 countries and regions attended the peace memorial ceremony.

Attendees observed a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m., the exact time the atomic bomb was dropped.

The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, near the end of the Pacific War, and carried out a second atomic bombing on Nagasaki three days later, on Aug. 9.


mokiya@heraldcorp.com