Raging conflicts around the world are “reinforcing the public assumption” that military force and nuclear deterrence are needed to solve global crises — a view Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui rejected Tuesday in a ceremonial speech marking 79 years since Hiroshima was devastated by an atomic bomb, writes The Japan Times.

“Citing former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s push to end the Cold War, Matsui stressed the importance of not being “resigned to pessimism” amid conflicts such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, adding that the world must take collective action and show that dialogue can overcome conflict.

“Our unity will move leaders now relying on nuclear deterrence to shift their policies”, he said. “We can make that happen”.

Speaking after Matsui, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized in his own speech that the suffering that transpired in Hiroshima and Nagasaki “must never be repeated”: “It is our country’s mission as the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings in war to steadily continue our efforts toward realizing a world without nuclear weapons”.

Kishida said deepening divisions within the international community over arms control measures, as well as nuclear threats from Russia, have created an “increasingly severe” environment surrounding nuclear disarmament: “But no matter how difficult the journey toward a world without nuclear weapons may be, we cannot afford to halt our progress. Japan would move forward with realistic and practical initiatives as part of a global effort building support for nuclear disarmament”.

Noting that the number of nuclear weapons could soon increase for the first time since the peak of the Cold War, Kishida stressed the urgency of nuclear disarmament and pledged to continue to promote the passage of the long-stalled Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which prohibits the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.

During the final days of World War II, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and again three days later on Nagasaki. The blasts killed hundreds of thousands and left many survivors — known as hibakusha — with lasting injuries and illnesses from radiation exposure.

While Kishida has pledged his commitment to nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, he has simultaneously relied on the U.S." extended deterrence — what is known as the nuclear umbrella — to help quell concerns and deter the growing nuclear capabilities of China, North Korea and Russia.

At the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima in May last year, leaders emphasized that a nuclear war “cannot be won and must never be fought” in a joint statement issued during the summit - the group’s first to focus solely on nuclear arms control”, - writes the author of the article.