Kathmandu, August 6. Hiroshima marked the 76th anniversary of the US atomic bombing on Friday.

The mayor of Hiroshima urged the world to come together against nuclear weapons as they have come together for coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Kazumi Matsui said, “Nuclear weapons, developed to win wars, are a threat of total annihilation that we can certainly end, if all nations work together. No sustainable society is possible with these weapons continually poised for indiscriminate slaughter.”

The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered August 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

The global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has took effect with more than 50 countries have ratifying it, lacking US and Japan including other nuclear powers.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who was present in the ceremony in Hiroshima pressed on the need to link the nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states and strengthen the NPT.

Suga said, “The treaty lacks support not only from the nuclear weapons states including the United States but also from many countries that do not possess nuclear arms. What’s appropriate is to seek a passage to realistically promote the nuclear disarmament.” He also later said in a conference that Japan is not willing to sign the treaty.

The survivors are now eligible for government medical support, as survivors face the consequences even after many years of the bombing.

The ceremony garnered less attention due to the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020.