Tokyo, Aug. 6 (SANA)Japan marked the 81st anniversary of theU.S.atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday, renewing calls for the elimination of nuclear weapons and urging world leaders to strengthen international efforts toward nuclear disarmament.

Speaking during the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui warned against attempts to downplay the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons or justify the use of force to pursue political objectives.

“The acceptance of the use of force to pursue national interests risks dragging the world into a spiral of violent retaliation that could ultimately lead to another tragedy likeHiroshima or Nagasaki,” Matsui said in his Peace Declaration.

Matsui said growing international conflicts, together with the failure of the latest Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) to reach a consensus outcome, underscored the urgent need for multilateral cooperation to prevent nuclear proliferation and advance nuclear disarmament.

He expressed concern over the use of nuclear weapons as instruments of intimidation in international conflicts and criticized what he described as unilateral actions by major powers that undermine international law.

Thousands of participants gathered at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park observed a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m., the exact time the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The attack killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of that year.

Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan announced its surrender to the Allied powers six days afterward, bringing World War II to an end.

The anniversary comes amid continued domestic debate over Japan’s long-standing Three Non-Nuclear Principles—not producing, possessing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into its territory—in light of the evolving regional security environment.

Following a meeting with representatives of atomic bomb survivors, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to those principles, saying that as the only country to have experienced wartime nuclear bombings, Japan has a responsibility to continue working toward a world free of nuclear weapons.R.H/R.K