A survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear attack has denounced Donald Trump as a “huge mess”, in a striking warning about the threat of an atomic weapon being used in the 21st century.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, 83, was just a toddler when the ‘Little Boy’ bomb exploded above the southern Japanese city, decimating huge swathes of the city and killing upwards of 140,000 people.
A long-time advocate for nuclear disarmament, Mr Mimaki last year accepted the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Nihon Hidankyō, an organisation which he co-chairs, representing survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks since 1956.
"Right now is the most dangerous era," Mr Mimaki told Sky News in an interview ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing on Wednesday.
"Russia might use it [a nuclear weapon], North Korea might use it, China might use it. And President Trump - he's just a huge mess,” he added, without elaborating.
“In the future, you never know when they might use it. Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Gaza, Israel-Iran. There is always a war going on somewhere.”
Nihon Hidankyō has been appealing for a world without war or nuclear weapons but countries around the world are “not listening”, Mr Mimaki said. “I didn't hear a sound.”
"Why do these animals called humans like war so much? We keep saying it, we keep telling them, but it's not getting through, for 80 years no-one has listened.”
The city of Horishima held commemorations on Wednesday, attended by 55,000 people, including representatives from a record 120 countries and regions, including Russia and Belarus.
Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba was among the attendees alongside mayor Kazumi Matsui, who echoed Mr Mimaki’s stark warnings about a growing acceptance of military buildups.
"These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history," Mr Matsui said of the developments in nuclear warfare and arsenals. "They threaten to topple the peacebuilding frameworks so many have worked so hard to construct."
In a statement, Mr Mimaki’s organisation Nihon Hidankyo said: "We don't have much time left, while we face a greater nuclear threat than ever.
"Our biggest challenge now is to change, even just a little, nuclear weapons states that give us the cold shoulder.”
Kazuo Miyoshi, a 74-year-old retiree, came to honor his grandfather and two cousins who died in the bombing and prayed that the "mistake" will never be repeated. "We do not need nuclear weapons," Mr Miyoshi said.
But the Japanese government has rejected calls by survivors to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or attend its meetings as observers, because it remains under the protection of the US nuclear umbrella.
Mr Matsui urged Japan's government to sign and ratify the nuclear weapons ban treaty, a request also made by several groups of survivors in their meeting with Mr Ishiba after the ceremony. While Mr Ishiba reiterated his government's pledge to work toward a world without nuclear weapons during his speech on Wednesday, he did not mention the treaty.
