Japan has marked 80 years since the Nagasaki atomic bombing with a historic twin bell ringing.
The solemn ceremony honored victims and called for peace amid rising global tensions and nuclear threats.
Japan on Saturday commemorated the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, with one of the most symbolic moments of the day being the ringing of the twin bells of the city’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral the first time they have tolled together since 1945.
On August 9, 1945, at exactly 11:02 a.m., three days after Hiroshima was devastated, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The blast killed about 74,000 people, adding to the 140,000 deaths recorded in Hiroshima. Six days later, on August 15, Japan surrendered, ending World War II.
The anniversary ceremony, attended by representatives from nearly 100 countries, was held after morning rains cleared. A moment of silence was observed, followed by an address from Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki, who called for an immediate end to armed conflicts around the globe. “Eighty years have passed, and who could have imagined that the world would become like this? A crisis that could threaten the survival of humanity, such as a nuclear war, is looming over each and every one of us,” he said.
Among the attendees was 93-year-old survivor Hiroshi Nishioka, who was 1.8 miles from the blast as a teenager. He recounted how even those who initially escaped serious injury later developed symptoms such as bleeding gums and hair loss, and many eventually died. “Even though the war was over, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror,” he said.
For local resident Atsuko Higuchi, the commemoration was a vital reminder. “Instead of thinking that these events belong to the past, we must remember that these are real events that took place,” she told AFP.
The cathedral’s history was central to this year’s memorial. Located just a few hundred meters from the explosion’s hypocenter, the red-brick building was almost completely destroyed in 1945. Only one of its two bells survived, leaving the northern tower silent for decades. In 1959, the church was rebuilt, and earlier this year, a new bell funded by $125,000 raised from American Catholics was installed.
The fundraising effort was led by James Nolan, a sociology professor at Williams College, whose grandfather worked on the Manhattan Project. Inspired by a Japanese Christian who wished to hear the twin bells ring in his lifetime, Nolan toured U.S. churches giving lectures about the bombing and Nagasaki’s Christian heritage, which includes centuries of persecution and clandestine worship.
On Saturday, both bells rang out at the precise time the bomb had fallen, an act cathedral priest Kenichi Yamamura described as a message of peace. “It’s not about forgetting the wounds of the past but recognizing them and taking action to repair and rebuild,” he said. “We should not respond to violence with violence, but show through our way of living and praying how senseless it is to take another’s life.”
