Scars of atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki “should never be repeated,” Japan has said amid outcry over comments by US President Donald Trump.
Trump had likened the June 22 American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites to the 1945 US atomic bombing of Japan.
The dropping of the atomic bomb “led to the loss of many valuable lives, and it has inflicted difficulties that are indescribable in words in terms of illnesses and different problems,” Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
“This was very regrettable in terms of humanitarian standpoint,” he stressed, according to a video record of the news conference.
Iwaya expressed a “strong” desire that the “scars of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should never be repeated.”
Trump compared last Sunday’s US air strikes on Iran's nuclear sites to the WWII bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, claiming both instances brought a quick resolution.
“I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war," Trump said Wednesday during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in The Hague.
However, Iwaya said that the “use of nuclear weapons… (is) a destructive power to kill; it does not align with the spirit of humanitarian principles.”
Japan is the only country to have experienced the suffering of an atomic bomb.
The US dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb hit Nagasaki on August 9, killing an additional 70,000 victims. Japan surrendered days later, ending World War II.
“Towards a nuclear-free world, we will take doable and realistic initiatives,” the Japanese foreign minister said, avoiding a direct answer as to whether Tokyo would protest Trump's remarks.
“We have on various occasions explained to the US…. (about the effects of nuclear bombing). We will closely communicate with the US in the future,” said Iwaya, who is set to fly to the US for a meeting of Quad foreign ministers.
Earlier, Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki expressed regret on Thursday over Trump's likening American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites to the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan.
“We deeply regret it if he tried to justify the dropping of the atomic bombs," said Suzuki.
Israel launched air strikes on several sites across Iran on June 13, including military and nuclear facilities, alleging that Tehran was on the verge of producing a nuclear bomb, a claim denied by Iran. The assault killed 606 people and injured 5,332 others.
While Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes, killing 28 people and wounding 3,238, the US joined the conflict by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday.
After 12 days of aerial combat between the two regional arch-foes, Trump announced a ceasefire late Monday, which appears to be holding.
