{"id":3879,"date":"2026-03-08T19:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/?p=3879"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:40:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:40:01","slug":"survivors-voices-80-years-after-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-sound-a-warning-and-a-call-to-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/survivors-voices-80-years-after-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-sound-a-warning-and-a-call-to-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivors\u2019 voices 80 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki sound a warning and a call to action"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Masako Toki, Senior Education Project Manager and Research Associate, Nonproliferation Education Program, Middlebury<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n

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Eighty years ago, in August 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were incinerated by the first and only use of nuclear weapons<\/a> in war. By the end of that year, approximately 140,000 people had died in Hiroshima<\/a> and 74,000 in Nagasaki<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those who survived \u2013 known as Hibakusha \u2013 have carried their suffering as living testimony to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, with one key wish: that no one else will suffer as they have<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Now, in 2025, as the world marks 80 years of remembrance since those bombings, the voices of the Hibakusha offer not only memory, but also moral clarity in an age of growing peril. <\/p>\n

As someone who focuses on nuclear disarmament and has heard Hibakusha testimonies in my native Japanese language, I have been enthusiastically promoting disarmament education grounded in their voices and experience. I believe their message is more vital than ever at a time of rising nuclear risk. Nuclear threats have reemerged in global discourse, breaking long-standing taboos<\/a> against even talking about their use. From Russia and Europe<\/a> to the Middle East<\/a> and East Asia<\/a>, the possibility of nuclear escalation is no longer unthinkable. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
\"Amid<\/div>\n

<\/a>

\n The Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall was one of the few buildings not totally demolished in the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bombing of Japan.<\/span>
\n Universal History Archive\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Japan\u2019s deepening reliance on deterrence<\/h2>\n

Ironically, increasing nuclear threats are contributing to further reliance on nuclear deterrence<\/a>, the strategy of preventing attack by threatening nuclear retaliation, rather than renewed efforts toward nuclear disarmament<\/a>, which seeks to eliminate nuclear weapons entirely.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is this contradiction more visible than in Japan. While the Hibakusha have long stood as global advocates for nuclear abolition<\/a>, Japan\u2019s approach to national security has placed growing emphasis on the role of nuclear deterrence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the face of regional threats, the Japanese government has strengthened its dependence on U.S. nuclear protection<\/a> \u2013 even as the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki warn not only of the dangers of relying on nuclear weapons for security, but also of the profound moral failure such reliance represents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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