Hiroshima at 80: Survivors Urge Disarmament as Nuclear Threats Grow

A minute of silence, an urgent warning

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 2025, Hiroshima fell silent to remember the moment an atomic bomb exploded over the city 80 years earlier. Survivors, Japanese leaders and representatives from more than 120 countries gathered at Peace Memorial Park as growing nuclear arsenals and international tensions gave the anniversary an urgent message.

The ceremony brought together Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and United Nations representatives. White doves were released, schoolchildren read statements of hope, and survivors shared memories of the devastation they have spent their lives trying to prevent from happening again.

Nearly 5,000 names of survivors who died during the past year were added to the memorial registry, bringing the total number of deaths attributed to the bombing to almost 350,000. The anniversary drew a record number of international delegates.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only places where nuclear weapons have been used in war. Their destruction is being remembered at a time when Russia's invasion of Ukraine, conflict between India and Pakistan, strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and North Korea's expanding arsenal have renewed fears of another nuclear catastrophe.

The survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha, face a more personal deadline. Fewer than 100,000 remain, and their average age exceeds 86. As their numbers decline, they are trying to pass their experiences to younger generations who will have to carry the warning without them.

The ceremony joined remembrance with a difficult political argument: Japan supports a world without nuclear weapons while continuing to depend on the United States' nuclear protection. Survivors and campaigners want that commitment to disarmament translated into changes in government policy.

What Hiroshima and Nagasaki lost

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was codenamed "Little Boy." It killed an estimated 78,000 people immediately. By the end of that year, burns, other injuries and radiation sickness had brought the death toll to about 140,000.

Nagasaki was struck three days later, on August 9, and another 70,000 people were killed. Japan announced its surrender on August 15, ending World War II. For those who survived the bombings, the suffering continued long after the fighting stopped.

Survivors have described a blinding flash, searing heat and the destruction that followed. Their memories connect the scale of the death toll with individual lives, families and neighbourhoods destroyed in a moment.

The dates at the centre of the anniversary trace how quickly the two cities were devastated and the war came to an end:

• August 6, 1945: The atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m.
• August 9, 1945: A second atomic bomb devastated Nagasaki.
• August 15, 1945: Japan's surrender ended World War II.
• By the end of 1945: Hiroshima's death toll had reached about 140,000.
• August 6, 2025: Hiroshima marked 80 years since the bombing.

The almost 350,000 names now recorded in Hiroshima's memorial registry extend the act of remembrance across eight decades. The addition of nearly 5,000 names this year also showed how rapidly the generation that experienced the bombing is passing away.

Survivors race to preserve their memories

Minoru Suzuto, 94, prayed at the cenotaph during the anniversary observance. His reason for continuing to speak about the bombing was the approaching loss of those who can describe it from memory.

There will be nobody left to pass on this sad and painful experience in 10 or 20 years," Suzuto said. "That is why I want to share as much as I can.

Hibakusha have lived with physical injuries and psychological trauma, as well as social stigma. Rumours about disease and genetic effects fuelled discrimination. Many survivors also struggled to secure recognition and compensation.

Their testimony has been central to the international movement against nuclear weapons. With fewer than 100,000 hibakusha still alive, preserving that testimony has become an immediate task for families, campaigners and younger generations.

The survivors' demands reach beyond remembrance. They continue to seek acknowledgment and compensation for civilian victims, along with recognition of responsibility from the United States government for the bombings.

Schoolchildren's participation in the Hiroshima ceremony placed young voices alongside those of the survivors. The anniversary's flowers, silence and doves honoured the dead, while the statements and testimony asked the living to take responsibility for what happens next.

Hiroshima's mayor challenges nuclear deterrence

Mayor Kazumi Matsui used the ceremony to challenge the growing acceptance of nuclear weapons as a necessary source of national security. His appeal addressed leaders who argue that possessing such weapons helps protect their countries.

Among the world's political leaders, there is a growing belief that possessing nuclear weapons is unavoidable in order to protect their own countries," Matsui said. "This situation not only nullifies the lessons the international community has learned from the tragic history of the past, but also seriously undermines the frameworks that have been built for peace-building.

Matsui urged political leaders to visit Hiroshima and confront the reality of atomic warfare. He also called on Japan to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, known as the TPNW. Many survivors and activists repeated that request.

Ishiba reaffirmed Japan's reliance on the American nuclear umbrella. The term describes the protection Japan receives from the United States' nuclear deterrent: the threat of a nuclear response is intended to discourage an attack.

The prime minister argued that deterrence remains necessary because of Japan's regional security environment, including its nuclear armed neighbours. Survivors and campaigners see a gap between Japan's stated support for eliminating nuclear weapons and its continued dependence on them for protection.

Protesters and international leaders add their voices

More than 200 demonstrators gathered near the Atomic Bomb Dome, carrying signs that read "No Nuke," "Stop War," and "Free Gaza! No more genocide." Their protest connected the anniversary with anger over current wars and policies they regard as a betrayal of Hiroshima's legacy.

The demonstration took place alongside a ceremony attended by delegates from more than 120 countries. Together, the official gathering and public protest showed the different ways people were marking the same event: through diplomatic appeals, mourning and demands for political action.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres sent a statement that was read at the ceremony. He stressed the need to remember the past in order to build a peaceful future.

Pope Leo XIV, speaking from the Vatican, described the bombing as a universal warning about the devastation caused by war and nuclear weapons. His message joined the appeals from Hiroshima for the anniversary to carry meaning beyond the ceremony itself.

The disagreement centres on how to prevent another nuclear attack. Governments that rely on deterrence argue that the threat of retaliation discourages an enemy from striking. Survivors and disarmament campaigners argue that keeping these weapons preserves the danger of their use.

Conflicts give the anniversary new urgency

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by nuclear threats and threatening rhetoric, with both Moscow and Washington issuing veiled warnings. The United States has also conducted strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

India and Pakistan, both of which possess nuclear weapons, fought a brief but tense conflict over Kashmir earlier in 2025. The confrontation raised fears that fighting could escalate between the two countries.

North Korea continues to expand its arsenal. Kim Yo Jong has declared that Pyongyang will not give up its nuclear status in exchange for talks.

These developments form part of warnings that the danger of nuclear use is greater than it has been in decades, and more acute than at any point since the Cold War ended.

Hans Kristensen, a senior fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, described a combination of expanding arsenals, more threatening language and weakening restraints on weapons.

We see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric, and the abandonment of arms control agreements.

Arms control agreements place negotiated limits on weapons. Their abandonment matters alongside rising stockpiles because it removes agreed restrictions at the same time that governments are investing in their nuclear forces.

More than 12,000 weapons across nine countries

Nine countries possess more than 12,000 nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. The United States and Russia together hold about 90% of the world's stockpile, leaving roughly 10% among the other seven.

China is adding approximately 100 warheads a year. India and the United Kingdom are also increasing their stockpiles, while nearly all countries with nuclear weapons are spending heavily on new delivery systems and warhead upgrades. Delivery systems are the equipment used to carry a weapon to its target.

The Hiroshima bomb had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons. Yield measures the energy released in an explosion. The largest American weapon has a yield of 1.2 megatons, described in the anniversary account as more than 80 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.

The comparison shows why the 1945 destruction remains central to arguments about today's arsenals. The Hiroshima weapon is now considered a weapon with a low yield, while a single modern bomb detonated over a major city could kill millions of people instantly.

Governments are therefore making decisions about both the number of weapons they hold and the capabilities of those weapons. Growing stockpiles sit alongside investment in upgraded warheads and the systems that would deliver them.

The clock warning and Japan's treaty choice

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its symbolic Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight in 2025, the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe. The clock expresses the organisation's assessment of danger, with midnight representing catastrophe.

The group's warning included nuclear threats, climate change, pandemics and disruptive technologies. Nuclear weapons remained central to its assessment.

The Bulletin's Doomsday Clock report described the spending and policy choices behind that warning:

The countries that possess nuclear weapons are increasing the size and role of their arsenals, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in weapons that can destroy civilization.

The anniversary also renewed debate over whether Hiroshima's tragedy is being honoured through disarmament or overshadowed by policies that maintain nuclear forces. At the centre of that argument is whether deterrence provides security or continues the risk of annihilation.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 2021 following support from 122 countries. None of the world's nuclear armed states or their allies has joined it. Japan has neither signed nor ratified the treaty, citing its dependence on the American nuclear umbrella.

For Matsui and many hibakusha, joining the treaty would give practical force to Japan's commitment to disarmament. Ishiba's position keeps deterrence central to national security. The anniversary brought renewed pressure for a change, without an announced date for Japan to join.

Survivors and activists regard assurances about a future without nuclear weapons as hollow while Japan continues to rely on nuclear protection. They also point to the lack of compensation for civilian victims and the government's reluctance to fully embrace disarmament.

Hamasumi Jiro calls for the next generation to listen

Hamasumi Jiro, one of Hiroshima's youngest survivors and secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, has taken the survivors' message to the United Nations. He was in his mother's womb when she was exposed to the bomb, and his father died in the blast.

His experience connects the bombing with the disproportionate suffering of women and children and with harm that survivors have carried throughout their lives. His advocacy also places the TPNW at the centre of efforts to prevent another nuclear attack.

Hamasumi compares the sharing of hibakusha stories to passing a flame from one lamp to another. As fewer survivors remain, that image describes a concrete responsibility for younger people: to keep the testimony and its warning alive.

Hamasumi, speaking as a survivor and a leader of Nihon Hidankyo, urged people around the world to listen to hibakusha:

For people to fulfill their dreams and cherish their lives, there must be peace. I want to say to the world, please listen to hibakusha so that we can achieve a world without war and free of nuclear weapons.

The 80th anniversary brought that appeal into direct contact with present security policies. Hiroshima remembered the people killed in 1945 and those who suffered afterward, while its surviving witnesses pressed leaders to confront the consequences of maintaining weapons capable of repeating that destruction.

Key Points

• Hiroshima marked the bombing's 80th anniversary on August 6, 2025, with silence at 8:15 a.m. and representatives from more than 120 countries.
• The Hiroshima bomb killed an estimated 78,000 people immediately and about 140,000 by the end of 1945. The Nagasaki bombing killed another 70,000.
• Nearly 5,000 names were added to Hiroshima's memorial registry, bringing the total to almost 350,000.
• Fewer than 100,000 hibakusha remain, with an average age exceeding 86.
• Mayor Kazumi Matsui called for Japan to join the nuclear prohibition treaty. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba maintained Japan's reliance on American nuclear deterrence.
• Nine countries possess more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, with the United States and Russia holding about 90%.
• The Doomsday Clock stood at 89 seconds to midnight in 2025 as survivors urged younger generations to preserve their testimony and work for disarmament.