Mayor warns of nuclear war threat

Remembering the pain: People standing before the Peace Statue during the annual memorial ceremony at Nagasaki Peace Park, marking the 80th anniversary of the WWII atomic bombing. — AFP/AP

Thousands bowed their heads in prayer in Nagasaki yesterday to mark the 80th anniversary of the city’s atomic bombing, as the mayor warned that current global conflicts could push the world again into nuclear war.

The western Japanese city was levelled on Aug 9, 1945, when the United States dropped a 4,535kg plutonium-239 bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man”, instantly killing some 27,000 of the city’s estimated 200,000 people.