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Nagasaki today marked the 71st anniversary of the city's atomic bombing by the United States.

The bells tolled across the city's Peace Park to commemorate the exact moment, 11:02 a.m. Nagasaki time, August 9, 1945, an atomic bomb dropped from an American B-29 bomber detonated.  Over 70,000 people were killed instantly, with thousands more dying months, and sometimes even years later from radiation sickness. The last survivors of the August 9, 1945 attack, as well as representatives of over 50 nations, attended the ceremony in the Nagasaki Peace Park.

Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue called on world leaders to "bring together as much of your collective wisdom as you possibly can" to permanently eliminate nuclear weapons, and urged them to visit his city to fully comprehend the aftermath of a nuclear attack. He said President Barack Obama had set a good example by his historic visit in May to Hiroshima.  President Obama was the first U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, which was attacked three days before Nagasaki in 1945. 

UNI Global Union has a warm friendship and profound link with the people of Nagasaki – the city where UNI held its World Congress in November 2010. UNI’s Breaking Through plan supports the global nuclear disarmament movement and UNI is a member of ICAN, the International Campaign Against Nuclear Arms.

The Nagasaki Hiroshima Peace Messengers have visited UNI head office in Nyon, Switzerland for the last 12 years on their way to bringing a petition to the UN calling for a world free of nuclear weapons. The young activists’ presentations paint a vivid picture on the horrors of nuclear war drawing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The peace messengers are working to ensure that Nagasaki is the last ever city subjected to the atomic bomb. They are the last generation who will hear first-hand the voices of the survivors.

Some of the Peace Messengers spoke at the recent JTUC-RENGO peace rally and made mention of their visits to UNI and the UN in Switzerland and their efforts to keep the message of Hiroshima and Nagasaki alive.

Note: UNI will be an active participant at the upcoming, International Peace Bureau’s World Congress in Berlin 30 September – 3 October.