LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Eighty years ago, today, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, just before the end of World War II. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports that the voices of survivors opposing nuclear weapons are fading fast.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: The bombing killed about 140,000 people. Many survivors, or hibakusha in Japanese, remember the dying begging them for a drink of water. It's reflected in an annual ceremony in Hiroshima's Peace Park.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: In this ritual, pure water is solemnly offered to the victims who died in the flames while seeking water on this day 80 years ago.
KUHN: As the only country to ever suffer a nuclear attack, Japan has had a strong antinuclear movement. But Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui noted in a speech that wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and global instability make some nations' leaders think they need nuclear weapons for protection.
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KAZUMI MATSUI: (Speaking Japanese).
KUHN: "The developments," he said, "flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history." Tom Le, a Japan expert and associate professor at Pomona College, was at today's ceremony. He says the aging of the hibakusha, whose average age is now over 86, was an inescapable topic.
TOM LE: In the past, they always mentioned how they're getting older, but this one, they definitely emphasize how their voice will no longer be around. And then the next generation needs to carry on their message. So it felt like a passing of the torch.
KUHN: Mayor Matsui called on young Japanese to help forge a consensus against nuclear weapons.
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MATSUI: (Speaking Japanese).
KUHN: "Our youth, the leaders of future generations, must recognize," he said, "that misguided policies regarding military spending, national security and nuclear weapons could bring utterly inhumane consequences." Tom Le adds that Japan's concerns about U.S. leadership are front and center. In June, some hibakusha reacted with outrage when President Trump said the U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear facilities and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, quote-unquote, "essentially the same thing."
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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