Japanese Prime Minister Takaiči omitted during a public speech on the anniversary of Nagasaki that the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

TOKIO – Japan marked the 81st anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Prime Minister Sanae Takaičiová, in her speech, emphasized the scale of the tragedy but did not mention the specific perpetrator of the attack.

"Eighty-one years ago, the city of Nagasaki was completely destroyed by a single atomic bomb," said the Prime Minister during the memorial ceremony. Her formulation focused primarily on the consequences of the nuclear strike and the suffering of the city's inhabitants.

However, attention was drawn precisely to what was omitted from her speech: Takaičiová did not state that an American military aircraft dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The bombing became the second and still final instance of a nuclear weapon being used against a city during the war.

Mayor Suzuki of Nagasaki formulated his part of the memorial ceremony differently. Before the Prime Minister, he used similar wording about the destruction of the city by a single atomic bomb; at the same time, he explicitly stated that an "American military aircraft" dropped the bomb on Nagasaki.

The difference in formulations may be seen as a sensitive moment in Japan's remembrance of the end of World War II. Japan annually honors the victims of nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki while emphasizing its commitment to eliminating nuclear weapons.

The atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, from an American B-29 bomber named "Bockscar." The explosion of the bomb called "Fat Man" caused extensive destruction in the city and, according to historical estimates, claimed approximately 70,000 lives by the end of 1945. Three days earlier, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

The memorial ceremonies in both Japanese cities have a significant political and international dimension beyond remembering the victims. Japan, the only country to experience wartime use of nuclear weapons, has long opposed their proliferation and warned against the humanitarian consequences of any potential nuclear conflict.

The differing formulations by the Prime Minister and Nagasaki's mayor may once again raise questions about how Japan commemorates historical responsibility for events in 1945 and what role current geopolitical conditions play in these remembrances.

gnews.cz - GH