Tuesday marks 79 years since an atomic bomb devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A ceremony to remember the victims will be held at the city’s Peace Memorial Park.
The ceremony will be attended by Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and representatives from 109 countries, including nuclear powers such as the United States and Britain.
An updated list of atomic bomb victims will be placed inside a cenotaph at the park. It includes the names of those who survived the bombing but died over the past 12 months.
The list now has over 340,000 names. There will then be a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m., the exact time the bomb was dropped in 1945.
This year’s ceremony comes alongside increased fears that nuclear weapons could be used again. Conflicts around the world, including Russia’s prolonged invasion of Ukraine, have shaken the international order. The path to abolishment and disarmament seems increasingly far away.
Meanwhile, the average survivor is over 85 years old. Going forward, it is increasingly hard for them to advocate for peace.
People around the world seem ready to listen. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the last fiscal year welcomed a record high of about 1.98 million visitors. The challenge in the years to come will be how to convey the horrors of nuclear weapons.