Hiroshima held a solemn ceremony on Wednesday to mark exactly 80 years since the United States dropped the world’s first wartime atomic bomb on the city. Thousands of people, including survivors and students, gathered in Peace Memorial Park and bowed their heads for a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m., the moment the uranium device nicknamed “Little Boy” detonated on 6 August 1945. Mayor Kazumi Matsui used his Peace Declaration to warn that a global trend toward military build-ups and reliance on nuclear deterrence risks repeating past horrors. He urged world leaders to visit Hiroshima, abandon “narrow self-interest” and sign treaties that outlaw the weapons. Representatives from a record 120 countries and regions attended, though major nuclear powers Russia, China and Pakistan were absent. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Japan, as the only nation to have suffered nuclear attacks, has a mission to advance disarmament even as geopolitical tensions rise in Ukraine and the Middle East. Japan has not joined the U.N. treaty banning nuclear arms but Ishiba pledged to explore practical steps with both nuclear and non-nuclear states. The ceremony took place against a backdrop of accelerating arsenals. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates the United States and Russia control 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads, while China has been adding about 100 warheads annually since 2023. Survivors’ organisation Nihon Hidankyo, awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, reiterated that fewer than 100,000 recognised survivors—average age 86—remain to bear witness, and called on young people to carry forward the push for a world free of nuclear weapons.