A ceremony under the sign of Covid-19. The Japanese city of Nagasaki commemorates this Sunday the American nuclear bombardment that destroyed it 75 years ago, three days after the first nuclear attack in history on Hiroshima. The participants of the moving ceremony at the Peace Park in this large city on the southern island of Kyushu were ten times fewer than usual this year and their faces were crossed out with a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. .
On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m., the explosion of Bomb A destroyed 80% of the buildings of Nagasaki, including its famous Urakami Cathedral, and caused the death of some 74,000 people instantly and until the end of the year. On August 6, the dropping of the Little Boy bomb destroyed Hiroshima, further north, killing 140,000 people.
A mass in memory of the victims
These two bombs of unprecedented destructive power brought Japan to its knees: on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced to his subjects the surrender to the Allies, thus precipitating the end of World War II. This Sunday morning a mass was celebrated in memory of the victims in the cathedral very close to the hypocenter of the explosion, in this region which retains signs of the introduction of Christianity to Japan in the 16th century.
Then at 11:02 am (2:02 am GMT), the Nagasaki Peace Monument bell rang and the hosts, among whom a few foreign representatives, froze to their feet for a minute of silence. A few moments earlier a handful of representatives of the survivors, the families of the victims, schoolchildren and high school students had symbolically brought to the victims in wooden containers the water collected in different parts of the city, reviving the poignant memory of the dying who for all all were asking for water.
長崎 原 爆 の 日 平和 へ の 祈 り
長崎 に 原 爆 が 投下 さ れ て 、 き ょ う で 75 年 で す。 平和 祈 念 式 典 で は 、 原 爆 が が さ く し た 2さ さ げ ま し た 。https: //t.co/OcPc1k2GJ5#nhk_news #nhk_video pic.twitter.com/9075jDyz8R
“People were shouting 'water! Water!' but I couldn't help them ”
These scenes are engraved in the memory of Shigemi Fukahori, 89, who came to testify during the ceremony broadcast live by the public channel NHK and online. The young schoolboy had seen "piles of blackened bodies" which he did not know "if they were alive or dead". “People were shouting 'water! Water!' but I couldn't help them, ”recalls the old man.
His comrades, whom he had been able to join, then died during the day, all his brothers and sisters too. He remembers "the terror of being next." “I don't want anyone to feel what I was feeling right now,” he said. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue called on the audience to applaud the survivors called “hibakusha” in Japan “who have kept (…) alerting the whole world to the dangers of nuclear weapons” for 75 years, just as it has was made this year around the world to thank and encourage healthcare workers facing the pandemic.
A call to sign the treaty banning atomic weapons
Once again, under the gaze of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he called on his country to sign the United Nations treaty banning atomic weapons. He had done so for the first time during the ceremony in August 2017 in very strong terms, when this text banning atomic weapons had just been adopted by 122 countries.
The nuclear powers - United States, Russia, United Kingdom, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel - had boycotted the talks, as did most of the NATO countries and Japan, covered by Washington's nuclear umbrella, which is committed to protecting its Japanese ally through the principle of deterrence.
Nuclear deterrence, a "false security"
"As the only country to have suffered from nuclear attacks, it is our duty to take step by step forward the efforts of the international community to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, adding that Japan would serve as a “bridge between countries with different positions”.
"The prospect of intentional, accidental or miscalculation of the atomic weapon is dangerously present," warned United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a message read by Deputy Secretary General Izumi Nakamitsu.
Last year, Pope Francis also visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to hammer home his total rejection of atomic weapons, which he called a "crime", and to vilify the doctrine of nuclear deterrence. , a "false security" poisoning on the contrary relations between peoples, according to him.
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