By Michelle Ndaga.
Thousands gathered in solemn remembrance on Saturday, August 9, as Nagasaki marked 80 years since its devastation by an atomic bomb, with the city’s mayor warning that escalating global conflicts risk pushing the world toward nuclear war.
The ceremony, attended by survivors, officials, and international guests, included a moment of silence at 11:02 a.m., the exact time in 1945 when the United States dropped the 10,000-pound plutonium 239 bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man”. The explosion instantly killed an estimated 27,000 people from the city’s population of around 200,000.
By the end of 1945, the death toll had risen to about 70,000 due to acute radiation exposure, burns, and injuries. The bombing came just three days after Hiroshima suffered a similar attack, events that hastened Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II.
Nagasaki Mayor urged world leaders to remember the human cost of nuclear weapons and take concrete steps toward disarmament, stressing that the lessons of 1945 must guide today’s policy decisions to prevent another nuclear catastrophe.
