A minute of silence was observed in Nagasaki on Saturday at the exact time of the atomic explosion that devastated the Japanese city 80 years ago, marked by the renewed ringing of an old church bell for the first time since the attack.
On 9 August 1945, at 11:02, just three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki was subjected to the horrors of nuclear warfare, resulting in the deaths of approximately 74,000 people in this southwestern port city, which added to the 140,000 fatalities in Hiroshima.
“The world has changed drastically in 80 years; who could have imagined this? Stop armed conflicts immediately!” appealed the city’s mayor, Shiro Suzuki, during a ceremony attended by representatives from over 100 countries.
He warned of escalating global tensions due to a vicious cycle of confrontation and division, suggesting that nuclear war poses a critical threat to humanity’s survival. His poignant message coincided with the morning’s severe downpours ceasing just before the minute’s silence.
This year’s record international attendance was notable, especially the presence of Russia, which had not been invited since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Israel, whose ambassador was excluded last year over the conflict in Gaza.
A prominent symbol of the commemoration was the bell from a cathedral destroyed in the atomic blast, restored this spring by American Christians, and rung for the first time in 80 years.
The grand red-brick Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was rebuilt in 1959 after the original structure was obliterated by the atomic bomb, with only one of its two bells recovered from the ruins.
