Japan urged to uphold nuclear principles

Nagasaki marked the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing by the United States with a memorial ceremony at the city's Peace Park on Sunday, as people from across Japan renewed calls for the government to uphold its Three Non-Nuclear Principles and face up to its history of wartime aggression.

A moment of silence was observed at 11:02 am, marking the time of the bombing. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi then delivered a speech, reiterating that Japan "is upholding" the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, days after a similar address in Hiroshima.

She also said that Japan would uphold its pledge to make Nagasaki the last place to suffer an atomic bombing and fulfill its mission as the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war.

However, unlike her predecessors — who largely vowed at atomic bombing memorial ceremonies in recent years that Japan would continue to uphold the three principles, Takaichi simply outlined the government's current stance, stopping short of offering any firm pledge about the future.

Brief heckling was heard from the crowd before Takaichi delivered her speech. Her ambiguous stance has drawn strong reactions in Japan.

Hakuzan Atsuhito, a local government employee in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, traveled to Nagasaki and questioned Takaichi's claim that her government is upholding the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.

He said that the ongoing moves in Japan to revise the pacifist Constitution and the country's three key security documents are dangerous and risk leading the country in the wrong direction.

Since December last year, the Nagasaki and Hiroshima prefectural assemblies and the Hiroshima city assembly have unanimously called for the Three Non-Nuclear Principles to be upheld. By mid-July, 82 local assemblies across 25 prefectures had made similar calls or sought to enshrine the principles in law, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo News.

A broader trend in Japan of avoiding facing up to its history of wartime aggression is raising deep concerns.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki noted in his speech at the memorial ceremony that the atomic bomb was dropped on the city by a US military aircraft, but did not mention Japan's wartime aggression in explaining the historical context of the bombing.

Tashiro, who declined to give her full name, traveled from Saitama Prefecture with her fourth-grade daughter to attend the memorial ceremony. She told China Daily that her daughter had learned little at school about Japan's wartime history or even about the atomic bombing.

Tashiro, whose husband is Swedish, said that her family has found that history is taught differently across countries. "History education in Japan is often presented mainly from Japan's own perspective, focusing more on the Japanese side of the story," she said.

She hopes her daughter can learn about history more broadly, including perspectives from other countries.

Kumiko Haba, distinguished professor at Josai International University in Tokyo, told China Daily that the changes in government education policy have played a major role in shaping how younger generations in Japan view the country's wartime past.

"Schools have focused on Japan's suffering during the war, while barely teaching young people about the suffering Japan inflicted on other countries," she said.

On July 28, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum retained a proposed change in its revamped exhibition, referring to the Nanjing Massacre as the "Nanjing Incident".

The wording will be finalized by the end of August, with the revamped exhibition scheduled for completion in March 2027.

The planned change has sparked controversy. In late June, a Nagasaki civic group petitioned the city to retain Nanjing Massacre, arguing that "Nanjing Incident" fails to convey the brutality of what happened and could downplay Japan's wartime aggression.

British newspaper The Times has also reported on the change, citing the museum's planned revision as an example of a broader trend of historical revisionism in Japanese politics.