Japan commemorated the 78th anniversary of the United States' bombing of the city of Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb on Sunday, August 6, 2023, following World War II, and the city's mayor urged for the abandonment of nuclear weapons, describing the concept of "nuclear deterrence" among the leaders of the G7 countries as "foolishness," while the United Nations warned of a new nuclear war.

The peace bell rang on Sunday at 08:15 local time (23:15 GMT on Saturday) which is the time of the bomb's dropping, and about 50,000 people participated in the commemoration ceremony in an open area, including elderly survivors of the bombing, and everyone stood in a moment of silence to mourn the victims.

Kazumi Matsui, the mayor of Hiroshima, said during the ceremony attended by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida: "Leaders around the world must face the reality that the nuclear threats now being issued by certain policymakers reveal the folly of the nuclear deterrence theory."

For his part, the Prime Minister stated that "the path to a world free of nuclear weapons is becoming more difficult," which is due to several reasons, including Russian nuclear threats, but he added that this increases the importance of restoring international momentum towards this goal.

In turn, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his support for this, stating in remarks conveyed by a UN representative: "World leaders visited this city (Hiroshima) and saw its effects, spoke with brave survivors, and returned with greater courage to take on the issue of nuclear disarmament (…), more must be done like them, because the drums of nuclear war are sounding again."

Additionally, attention was drawn to Hiroshima in May 2023, where Japanese Prime Minister Kishida hosted the G7 summit in the city located in the west of the country, and the group's leaders issued a statement expressing their commitment to disarmament, but they stated that as long as nuclear weapons exist, they should be utilized to deter aggression and prevent war.

The bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed thousands instantly, and around 140,000 more by the end of the year, and Japan surrendered on August 15 of the same year.

The commemoration of the victims of the world's first nuclear attack comes as Russia has raised the likelihood of using nuclear weapons due to its war on Ukraine, and the anniversary coincides with the success of the film "Oppenheimer," which tells the story of the atomic bomb's production, in the United States.