Nagasaki marks 80th A-bomb anniversary as survivors put hopes of nuclear ban in the hands of youth

NAGASAKI, Japan (AP) — The southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on Saturday marked 80 years since the U.S. atomic attack that killed tens of thousands and left survivors who hope their harrowing memories can help make their hometown the last place on Earth to be hit by a nuclear bomb.

The United States launched the Nagasaki attack on Aug. 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and the nearly half-century of aggression by the country across Asia.

About 2,600 people, including representatives from more than 90 countries, attended a memorial event at Nagasaki Peace Park, where Mayor Shiro Suzuki and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke, among other guests. At 11:02 a.m., the exact time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, participants observed a moment of silence as a bell rang.

“Even after the war ended, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror,” 93-year-old survivor Hiroshi Nishioka said in his speech at the memorial, noting that many who had survived without severe wounds started bleeding from gums and losing hair and died.

“Never use nuclear weapons again, or we’re finished,” he said.

Dozens of doves, a symbol of peace, were released after a speech by Suzuki, whose parents are survivors of the attack. He said that the city’s memories of the bombing are “a common heritage and should be passed down for generations” in and outside Japan.

“The existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth,” Suzuki said. “In order to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and forever, we will go hand-in-hand with global citizens and devote our utmost efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of everlasting world peace.”

Survivors and their families gathered Saturday in rainy weather at Peace Park and nearby Hypocenter Park, located below the bomb’s exact detonation spot, hours before the official ceremony.

“I simply seek a world without war," said Koichi Kawano, an 85-year-old survivor who laid flowers at the hypocenter monument decorated with colorful origami paper cranes and other offerings.

Some others prayed at churches in Nagasaki, home to Catholic converts who went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution in Japan’s feudal era.

The twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed in the bombing, also rang together again after one of the bells that had gone missing following the attack was restored by volunteers.

Despite their pain from wounds, discrimination and illnesses from radiation, survivors have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they worry about the world moving in the opposite direction.

Aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki now put their hopes of achieving nuclear weapons abolition in the hands of younger people, telling them the attack isn't distant history, but an issue that remains relevant to their future.

“There are only two things I long for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and prohibition of war,” said Fumi Takeshita, an 83-year-old survivor. “I seek a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everyone can live in peace.”

In the hope of passing down the lessons of history to current and future generations, Takeshita visits schools to share her experience with children.

“When you grow up and remember what you learned today, please think what each of you can do to prevent war,” Takeshita told students during a school visit earlier this week.

Teruko Yokoyama, an 83-year-old member of a Nagasaki organization supporting survivors, said that she thinks of the growing absence of those she had worked with, and that fuels her desire to document the lives of others who are still alive.

The number of survivors has fallen to 99,130, about a quarter of the original number, with their average age exceeding 86. Survivors worry about fading memories, as the youngest of the survivors were too young to clearly recall the attack.

“We must keep records of the atomic bombing damages of the survivors and thier lifetime story,” said Yokoyama, whose two sisters died after suffering illnesses linked to radiation.

Her organization has started to digitize the narratives of survivors for viewing on YouTube and other social media platforms with the help of a new generation.

“There are younger people who are beginning to take action,” Yokoyama told The Associated Press on Friday. “So I think we don’t have to get depressed yet.”

Nagasaki hosted a “peace forum” on Friday where survivors shared their stories with more than 300 young people from around the country. Seiichiro Mise, a 90-year-old survivor, said that he's handing seeds of “flowers of peace” to the younger generation in hopes of seeing them bloom.

Survivors are frustrated by a growing nuclear threat and support among international leaders for developing or possessing nuclear weapons for deterrence. They criticize the Japanese government’s refusal to sign or even participate in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as an observer because Japan, as an American ally, says it needs U.S. nuclear possession as deterrence.

In Ishiba's speech, the prime minister reiterated Japan’s pursuit of a nuclear-free world, pledging to promote dialogue and cooperation between countries with nuclear weapons and nonnuclear states at the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons review conference scheduled for April and May 2026 in New York. Ishiba didn't mention the nuclear weapons ban treaty.

“Countries must move from words to action by strengthening the global disarmament regime,” with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, at the center, complemented by the momentum created by the nuclear weapons ban treaty, said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, in his message read by Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitsu in Nagasaki.

Nagasaki invited representatives from all countries to attend the ceremony on Saturday. The government in China notably notified the city that it wouldn't be present without providing a reason.

The ceremony last year stirred controversy because of the absence of the U.S. ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to invite officials from Israel.

Mari Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

A person prays, ahead of a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the WWII U.S. atomic bombing at Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park in Nagasaki, western Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People observe a minute of silence at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, during a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Japanese southwestern city, in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Doves are leased over the Peace Statue during a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, southern Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Kotaro Ueda/Kyodo News via AP)

People offer prayers at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, during a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Japanese southwestern city, in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Faithful people offer prayers at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japanese city. (Kyodo News via AP)

A visitor prays in front of the Peace Statue at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japanese city, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)

A woman offers prayer in the rain at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, as Japan commemorates the 80th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on its southwestern city, in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Faithful people offer prayers at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japanese city. (Kyodo News via AP)

People put up a banner, ahead of a public ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The banner, partly seen, reads: "Nuclear." (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People gather, ahead of a public ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People leaves after offering prayer in the rain at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, as Japan commemorates the 80th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People bows to pray in the rain, at at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, ahead of a public ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the day an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, in Nagasaki, Japan Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.

Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.

The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.

Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.

In Friday’s case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting and thus depriving some Cabinet members who were not convened of their due rights to deliberate on his decree.

Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.

Yoon’s defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was “politicized” and reflected “the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel.” Yoon’s defense team argued the ruling “oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional powers and criminal liability.”

Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.

Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.

South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.

South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.

Some observers say Yoon will likely retain a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future.

On the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate “anti-state forces” and protect “the constitutional democratic order.” Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didn’t aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoon’s decree.

No major violence occurred, but Yoon's stunt caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than four decades in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations.

After Yoon's ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.

Yoon's other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.

A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)