Japan’s response to US President Donald Trump's comparison between Iran strikes and Hiroshima’s atomic bomb was scathing.
The last couple of weeks have been tense, with Iran and Israel engaged in active war with each other over the allegations that Iran is well on its way to developing nuclear weapons.
It all began when Israel bombed Iran on 13 June, targeting missile and nuclear sites to prevent the country from gaining access to dangerous warheads.
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In response, Iran fired back, and while Donald Trump claimed the pair would be engaging in a ceasefire, that just didn’t happen.
Instead, the US launched strategic airstrikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites based in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan and dubbed it a 'spectacular military success'.
He also claimed the facilities were 'completely obliterated',
Iran responded to the attack by launching missiles at a US airbase in Qatar.
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All in all, it has been a very critical time for the world as we watch and wait to see what happens next.
However, in a twist that nobody saw coming, Trump discussed a horrific nuclear event in history which saw the US drop an atomic nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, and Nagasaki in Japan to end World War II.
During this reference, he compared the Iran bombing to the awful event, which killed 140,000 in August 1945.
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"That hit ended the war," Trump told reporters on 25 June. "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."
He made similar remarks at a separate news conference that same day.
Trump said: "When you look at Hiroshima, if you look at Nagasaki, that ended a war, too."
He added: "This ended a war in a different way."
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In response, Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki released a scathing comment, stating that if Trump's comment "justifies the dropping of the atomic bomb, it is extremely regrettable for us as a city that was bombed.”
As for Mimaki Toshiyuki, an atomic bomb survivor of the event who co-chairs the advocacy group Nihon Hidankyo, Trump’s words are ‘unacceptable’, as per NHK.
Another member of the advocacy group, Teruko Yokoyama, said in a Kyodo News report: "I'm really disappointed. All I have is anger.”
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Japan is the only country in the world to have been hit by a nuclear attack, and the impact is still felt to this very day.
Survivors have given testimonies to what they saw before, during and after the blast, and they live with the psychological damage it caused.
Since the 1960s, Hiroshima has burnt a peace flame that symbolises the country's opposition to nuclear weapons and also has a clock which displays the number of days since the world's last nuclear attack at the entrance of a war museum.
Japanese leaders also claim to have made their feelings on nuclear weapons clear in Washington, opposing the use of something so dangerous and speaking of their preference for peaceful resolutions.
Topics: Iran, Israel, Politics, US News, Donald Trump
Britt Jones