A Message from Hiroshima 81 Years On
Japan marks the anniversary of the first nuclear attack in history, with Mayor Kazumi Matsui set to condemn the growing notion that atomic weapons prevent conflicts.
Japan marks the anniversary of the first nuclear attack in history, with Mayor Kazumi Matsui set to condemn the growing notion that atomic weapons prevent conflicts.
On Thursday, August 6, 2026, Japan commemorates the 81st anniversary of the American nuclear attack on Hiroshima, the first such attack in human history. The central ceremony is held under the banner of a message from the last survivors, appealing to the world not to forget the horrors of 1945.
The B-29 bomber "Enola Gay" dropped the atomic bomb named "Little Boy" on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. local time. From an altitude of 9,600 meters, the bomb, weighing about four tons, exploded after 43 seconds at 600 meters above the ground. The temperature at the center of the explosion is estimated to have reached between 3,000 and 4,000 degrees Celsius.
Within a radius of 500 meters from the epicenter, no one survived. The bomb destroyed 90 percent of the city, and about 45 minutes after the explosion, "black rain" of radioactive particles began to fall. At the time of the attack, 350,000 people lived in Hiroshima, including 40,000 military personnel. By the end of 1945, about 140,000 people had died from the effects of the blast and radiation.
Just three days later, on August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, "Fat Man," on Nagasaki, killing about 74,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15, and World War II officially ended on September 2, 1945. According to some estimates, more than 220,000 people died in total from both attacks.
No American president visited Hiroshima until 2016, when then-President Barack Obama laid a wreath at the memorial park. Today, Hiroshima has a population of about 1.2 million, and each year, 10 million origami cranes-birds that symbolize longevity and immortality in Japan-arrive in the city.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui will read the Peace Declaration again this year. This year's message is firmly grounded in current international events, according to world media reports. It will condemn the growing idea that nuclear weapons prevent conflicts, emphasizing that such a doctrine must be abandoned immediately.
The mayor will point to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, stressing that such crises foster international mistrust and push world powers to justify the use or threat of nuclear weapons. The declaration will also convey a direct message from the last survivors.
"Do not pass on hatred; pass on hope," reads the message from the last survivors, who call on younger generations to perpetuate the memory of 1945 despite oblivion.
