MANILA — The Philippine Embassy in Tokyo on Thursday reaffirmed the Philippine government’s commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons at the 73rd Nagasaki Peace Ceremony in Nagasaki City, Japan.
Embassy officials paid tribute to the victims of the bombing at the cenotaph erected below the exact location the atomic bomb exploded on August 9, 1945.
The delegation, composed of Ambassador Jose Laurel V, Minister and Consul General Robespierre Bolivar and Maria Aurora Bolivar, also visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, which documents the events surrounding the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city towards the end of World War II.
“Eradicating nuclear weapons should be the goal of every nation. While the Filipino people offer deepest sympathies to the victims of the atomic bombing and their families, the Philippine government is committed to work to bring about world peace and a world free of nuclear weapons,” Laurel said in an interview with the Japanese press.
The delegation joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and members of the Diplomatic Corps at the Nagasaki Peace Park to commemorate the thousands who perished from the bombing.
Guterres, the first UN Secretary General to participate at the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony, encouraged the nations represented at the ceremony to work together to realize the United Nations’ Agenda for Disarmament.
“No more Nagasaki. No more Hiroshima. Never again!” he said.
In his remarks, Prime Minister Abe reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to the global disarmament agenda.
He expressed hope that the recent Summits between the two Koreas and between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) would eventually lead to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Representatives of 71 countries participated in the Peace Ceremony.
At 11:02 a.m., the precise moment when the atomic bomb exploded in the skies of Nagasaki, bells tolled throughout the city and participants observed a moment of silence.
The ceremony was highlighted by a choral presentation by a choir composed exclusively of hibakusha, or the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing.
According to Japanese government records, almost 180,000 hibakusha in Nagasaki have since passed away. Their names are inscribed in the memorial at ground zero.
Japan is the only country in history to have suffered an atomic bomb explosion in war time.
More than 150,000 people perished in the immediate aftermath of the atomic bomb explosion in Nagasaki in 1945. (Philippine Embassy in Japan/PNA)
