As Sunday, 6 August marked the 78th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, the Conference on Disarmament held discussions around the impact of the nuclear attacks in Japan and the current threat of nuclear warfare. As the global community’s only multilateral disarmament negotiation forum, the Conference on Disarmament takes place annually in three increments, with the third session of 2023 currently under way in Geneva. Attending Member States have heard briefings from the UN’s Office for Disarmament Affairs and the UN’s Institute for Disarmament Research. Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN’s High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, believes the risk of countries using nuclear weapons has not been this high ‘since the depths of the Cold War.’ She added, ‘The fact that in the last twelve months nuclear weapons have openly been used as tools of coercion should worry us all.’

Commemorating the anniversary of the atomic bombings in Japan provides an opportunity to consider the devastating impact of nuclear violence, for the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki together killed a total of 213,000 people immediately and continue to negatively affect people across the globe. This year, on the morning of the event’s anniversary, around 50,000 people gathered at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima for a memorial ceremony. At 8:15, the time the bomb was dropped, a peace bell rang in the city, and those who had gathered observed a moment of silence. Many survivors of the attacks, known as hibakusha, attended the memorial service. Elderly hibakusha Satoshi Tanaka told a reporter, ‘We have the responsibility of not making the same mistakes. I’ll continue to tell my story even if I’m the last to do so.’ 

Echoing Tanaka’s words, the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kashida proclaimed, ‘Japan, as the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings in war, will continue efforts towards a nuclear-free world.’ In a message delivered by Izumi Nakamitsu at the memorial ceremony, the UN Secretary-General said, ‘During my visits to Hiroshima, my meetings with the brave hibakusha—the human face of nuclear cataclysm—have never failed to move and inspire me. They are a potent symbol of forgiveness, hope, and resilience…I pledge to support them as they continue sharing their accounts—the terror, the pain, the incalculable loss, and above all, the lesson of what happened here on August 6, 1945.’ 

In May, the Japanese Prime Minister hosted the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, taking the G-7 leaders to visit the Peace Memorial Park in the city. While the leaders at the summit agreed to work towards nuclear disarmament, they maintained that existing nuclear weapons can be used to deter military aggression and prevent conflicts from escalating. According to Guterres, ‘States possessing nuclear weapons must commit to never use them,’ but in order to eliminate the risk of nuclear warfare, countries must commit to not possessing nuclear weapons at all. In addressing the Conference on Disarmament on 7 August, Nakamitsu said, ‘I am a strong believer in the need for comprehensive and cross-cutting approaches to global challenges, and in the unique role that the United Nations and relevant multilateral organisations can play and should play. When confronting global challenges, we cannot limit ourselves to our traditional and comfortable bureaucratic silos.’ 

Nevertheless, the doctrine of nuclear deterrence prioritises comfort over nuclear disarmament, allowing Member States to collectively move towards disarmament while still possessing nuclear weapons for purposes of ‘security.’ This illuminates the disconnect between international disarmament agendas and the disarmament agendas of individual countries. Nakamitsu concluded her speech in Hiroshima saying, ‘Disarmament is not some utopian dream. Disarmament is the only pathway to a safer and more secure world for all. The United Nations is proud to stand with the people of Hiroshima and the hibakusha to keep alive the memory of what happened here, and the lessons humanity must learn if we are to secure a more peaceful tomorrow.’ This vision depends upon countries trusting each other, reducing their military expenditure, and committing to complete nuclear disarmament. The anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings begs for a global moment of silence; it also begs for a multitude of voices to gather around the initiatives of nuclear disarmament, to take big steps towards ensuring, in the words of Nakamitsu, there will be ‘No more Hiroshimas. No more Nagasakis.’