Hiroshima governor says nuclear disarmament must be tackled as a pressing issue, not an ideal

TOKYO (AP) — Hiroshima officials urged world leaders Tuesday to stop relying on nuclear weapons as deterrence and take immediate action toward abolishment — not as an ideal, but to remove the risk of atomic war amid conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and rising tensions in East Asia.

They commented as Hiroshima remembered its atomic bombing 79 years ago at the end of World War II.

The memorial comes days after Japan and the U.S. reaffirmed Washington's commitment to “extended deterrence,” which includes atomic weapons, to protect its Asian ally. That is a shift from Japan’s past reluctance to openly discuss the sensitive issue as the world’s only country to have suffered atomic attacks.

Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki said nuclear-armed nations and supporters of atomic deterrence “deliberately ignore ... the fact that once people invented a weapon, they used it without exception.”

“As long as nuclear weapons exist, they will surely be used again someday,” Yuzaki said in his address at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

“Nuclear weapons abolition is not an ideal to achieve far in the future. Instead, it is a pressing and real issue that we should desperately engage in at this moment since nuclear problems involve an imminent risk to human survival,” he said.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said Russia’s war on Ukraine and the worsening conflict between Israel and Palestinians are “deepening distrust and fear among nations” and reinforcing a view that use of force in settling conflict is unavoidable.

The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and Japan’s nearly half-century aggression in Asia.

About 50,000 people at the ceremony observed a minute of silence with the sound of a peace bell at 8:15 a.m., the time when a U.S. B-29 dropped the bomb on the city. Hundreds of white doves, considered symbols of peace, were released.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who attended the ceremony, said global conflicts and divided views over approaches to nuclear disarmament make achieving that goal “all the more challenging,” but pledged to do his utmost in pursuing “realistic and practical measures” to build momentum within the international community.

His critics say it is a hollow promise because Japan relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection and has been rapidly expanding its military.

Japan, the United States and other regional allies have been stepping up security cooperation in response to a more assertive China and the growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. Japan has sought stronger U.S. protection by its nuclear capability.

Many survivors of the bombings have lasting injuries and illnesses resulting from the explosions and radiation exposure and have faced discrimination in Japan.

As of March, 106,823 survivors — 6,824 fewer than a year ago, and now with an average age of 85.58 — are certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Many others, including those who say they were victims of the radioactive “black rain” that fell outside the initially designated areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are still without support.

Hiroshima officials called on Kishida’s government to do more to provide support and address their wishes.

The aging survivors, known as “hibakusha,” continue to push for a nuclear arms ban as they desperately campaign to have their effort kept alive by younger generations.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a press conference in Hiroshima, western Japan Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024 after he attended an annual ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing. (Kyodo News via AP)

People standing in front of the so-called Atomic Bomb Dome, formerly a convention center, look towards the cenotaph where an annual ceremony is held to mark the 79th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing, at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Yu Nakajima/Kyodo News via AP)

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida prepares to lay a wreath at the cenotaph dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing during an annual ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing, at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Kai Naito/Kyodo News via AP)

Doves fly over the cenotaph dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing during an annual ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing, at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Yu Nakajima/Kyodo News via AP)

CORRECTS TO 79TH NOT 78TH - A man places incense in front of the cenotaph dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing, early in the morning before an annual ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Yu Nakajima/Kyodo News via AP)

AVIGNON, France (AP) — A 71-year-old French man acknowledged in court on Tuesday that over nearly a decade, he was drugging his wife at the time and inviting dozens of men to rape her, as well as raping her himself. He pleaded with her, and their three children, for forgiveness.

“Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,″ Dominique Pélicot told the court. “They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”

Dominique Pélicot's testimony is the most important moment so far in a trial that has shocked and gripped France, and raised new awareness about sexual violence. Many also hope his testimony will shed some light — to try to understand the unthinkable.

While he previously confessed to investigators, the court testimony will be crucial for the panel of judges to decide on the fate of some 50 other men standing trial alongside him. Many deny having raped Gisèle Pélicot, saying they were manipulated by her then-husband or claiming they believed she was consenting.

Gisèle Pélicot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France for agreeing to waive her anonymity in the case, letting the trial be public, and appearing openly in front of the media. She is expected to speak in court after her ex-husband’s testimony on Tuesday.

Under French law, the proceedings inside the courtroom cannot be filmed or photographed. Dominique Pélicot is brought to the court through a special entrance inaccessible for the media, because he and some other defendants are being held in custody during the trial. Defendants who are not in custody come to the trial wearing surgical masks or hoods to avoid having their faces filmed or photographed.

After days of uncertainty due to his medical state, Dominique Pélicot appeared in court Tuesday and told judges he acknowledged all the charges against him.

His much-awaited testimony was delayed by days after he fell ill, suffering from a kidney stone and urinary infection, his lawyers said.

Seated in a wheelchair, Pélicot spoke to the court for an hour, from his early life to years of abuse against his now ex-wife.

Expressing remorse, his voice trembling and at times barely audible, he sought to explain events that he said scarred his childhood and planted the seed of vice in him.

“One is not born a pervert, one becomes a pervert,” Pélicot told judges, after recounting, sometimes in tears, being raped by a male nurse in hospital when he was 9 years old and then being forced to take part in a gang rape at age 14.

Pélicot also spoke of the trauma endured when his parents took a young girl in the family, and witnessing his father’s inappropriate behavior toward her.

“My father used to do the same thing with the little girl,'' he said. “After my father’s death, my brother said that men used to come to our house.”

At 14, he said, he asked his mother if he could leave the house, but “she didn’t let me.”

“I don’t really want to talk about this, I am just ashamed of my father. In the end, I didn’t do any better,'' he said.

Asked about his feelings toward his wife, Pélicot said she did not deserve what he did.

“From my youth, I remember only shocks and traumas, forgotten partly thanks to her. She did not deserve this, I acknowledge it,” he said in tears.

At that moment, Gisèle Pélicot, standing across the room, facing him across a group of dozens of defendants sitting in between them, put her sunglasses back on.

Later, Dominique Pélicot said, “I was crazy about her. She replaced everything. I ruined everything.”

A security agent caught Pélicot in 2020 filming videos under women’s skirts in a supermarket, according to court documents. Police searched Pélicot’s house and electronic devices, and found thousands of photos and videos of men engaging in sexual acts with Gisèle Pélicot while she appears to lie unconscious on their bed.

With the recordings, police were able to track down a majority of the 72 suspects they were seeking.

Gisèle Pélicot and her husband of 50 years had three children. When they retired, the couple left the Paris region to move into a house in Mazan, a small town in Provence.

When police officers called her in for questioning in late 2020, she initially told them her husband was “a great guy,″ according to legal documents. They then showed her some photos. She left her husband and they are now divorced.

He faces 20 years in prison if convicted. Besides Pélicot, 50 other men, aged 26 to 74, are standing trial.

Bernadette Tessonière, a 69-year-old retiree who lives a half-hour drive from Avignon, where the trial is taking place, arrived outside the courthouse at 7:15 a.m. to make sure she would secure a seat in the closely watched case.

“How is it possible that in 50 years of communal life, one can live next to someone who hides his life so well? This is scary,” she said, while standing in a line outside the courthouse. “I don’t have much hope that what he did can be explained, but he is at least going to give some elements.”

FILE - Gisele Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Gisele Pelicot, left, arrives in the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

FILE - Gisele Pelicot, left, arrives in the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)