EIGHTY years ago today, at 8:15am, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was wiped from the map. A single atomic bomb killed tens of thousands instantly. By the end of 1945, more than 140,000 men, women and children were dead from the blast, burns and radiation. Survivors — the hibakusha — carried the scars for life.
As a Japanese speaker who has studied in Japan, I have spent time in Hiroshima and listened, in Japanese, to a survivor describe the moment the sky turned white and the world disappeared in fire. I will never pretend to truly understand their suffering. But I have seen its shadow and I know what those words never again really mean.
And yet, on this anniversary, world leaders appear to have forgotten the lesson. Donald Trump has ordered U.S. nuclear‑armed submarines towards Russia as part of a ceasefire ultimatum. Vladimir Putin has scrapped limits on nuclear missile deployments and stationed new systems in Belarus. Dmitry Medvedev has boasted about Russia’s “Dead Hand” doomsday system. Xi Jinping has joined Putin in joint anti‑submarine drills aimed at U.S. forces.
This is not diplomacy. It is dangerous posturing that risks sleepwalking into catastrophe. Nuclear weapons are not political props — they are indiscriminate killers. Once used, they will not distinguish between soldier and civilian.
The cenotaph in Hiroshima bears a simple message:
“Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.”
Eighty years on, it is a message Trump, Putin and Xi would do well to read — and to take seriously. Because if they continue down this road, it will not be their cities in ruins, but ours.
