Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi wraps up a speech during a ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday. | JIJI
Aug 6, 2026
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi emphasized Japan’s commitment to its long-held nonnuclear principles in a speech Thursday in Hiroshima, paying tribute to those killed and injured 81 years after the city was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb.
The prime minister joined hibakusha, bereaved families, foreign and local representatives at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where participants observed a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m., the exact time when the bomb exploded over the southwestern city on Aug. 6, 1945, leaving an estimated 140,000 dead by the end of that year. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, leading to another 74,000 fatalities by the end of the year.
“The devastation caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the indescribable suffering endured by so many people, must never be repeated,” Takaichi said in a speech.
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