Nagasaki Survivors Vow to Make City Last Bombed by Atomic Weapon

On August 9, 2025, the city of Nagasaki, Japan is marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic attack that devastated the city during World War II. The survivors of the bombing, now in their 80s and 90s, have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons, despite the pain and suffering they have endured from the attack's wounds, discrimination, and radiation-related illnesses.

However, the survivors are increasingly worried that the world is moving in the opposite direction, as the anniversary is commemorated. The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killed around 70,000 people, just three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, which claimed 140,000 lives. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending the war and the country's nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.

Now, the aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki are putting their hopes of achieving nuclear weapons abolition in the hands of younger people, telling them that the attack is not distant history, but an issue that remains relevant to their future. Teruko Yokoyama, an 83-year-old member of a Nagasaki organization supporting survivors, is working to digitalize the narratives of survivors for viewing on social media platforms, as the number of survivors has fallen to just 99,130, about a quarter of the original number, with their average age exceeding 86.