Joe Biden's 'most dangerous nation' remark irks Pakistan, summons US envoy

Facing the brunt

Seventy-six years ago today (August 9) Nagasaki faced the brunt of the atomic bomb dropped by the US. The August 9, 1945, bombing came three days after the United States made the world's first atomic attack on Hiroshima, killing 140,000. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II.

In pic: The Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan, stands waste in the aftermath of the detonation of the atom bomb over a month ago over this city.

Little Boy and Fat Man

On 6th August 1945, a US bomber dropped the uranium fission bomb, codenamed Little Boy, on Hiroshima. Three days later it dropped another bomb codenamed Fat Man, on Nagasaki.

In pic: In this 1945 file photo, an Allied war correspondent stands in the ruins of Hiroshima, Japan, just weeks after the city was leveled by an atomic bomb.

Remembering the survivors

At 11:02 a.m., the moment the B-29 bomber dropped a plutonium bomb, Nagasaki survivors and other participants in the ceremony stood in a minute of silence to honor more than 70,000 lives lost.

In pic: Doves fly over the Peace Statue in Nagasaki Peace Park during a ceremony commemorating the 76th anniversary of the bombing of the city, in Nagasaki, Japan .

​Grounds for hope

Two developments this year provide grounds for hope, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in the form of the reaffirmation from the US and Russia, “that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”, together with a commitment to engage in arms control talks.

Secondly, said Guterres in his message, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has now come into force, representing “the legitimate fears of many States, about the existential danger posed by nuclear weapons.”

In pic: In this photo taken on August 6, 2021, the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, as it was known before 1945, and now called the Atomic Bomb Dome, is seen through the cenotaph at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima .

Lack of coordination

The global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons took effect in January after years of civil effort joined by the atomic bombing survivors, or hibakusha. But while more than 50 countries have ratified it, the treaty notably lacks the US and other nuclear powers as well as Japan, which has relied on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for its defense since the war's end.

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