80th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing

After a minute of silence at 8:15 PM, they condemned Ishiba who are seeking “nuclear sharing,” US-Israeli representatives and others, for attending the Peace Memorial Ceremony, and made a demonstration approaching the ceremony site led by second and third generation A-bomb survivors.

They continued their all-night sit-in and defied the City authorities’ notice to vacate the site, which began just after 4 AM on the 6th.

Wed. 6th Around 5:30 AM participants vigorously protested against the City authorities and riot police, who had begun to crush the rally.

As the riot police attacked with illegal violence, participants formed tight, double- and triple-layered arm-in-arm formations and engaged in a full-scale confrontation.

Tue. 5th At 9 PM, participants gathered in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome for an eve rally. They were determined to defend the site to the death.

August 6 Hiroshima Grand Action Crushes Police Repression and Defended Anti-War Anti-Nuke Rally in front of the A-bomb Dome

Stop the US and Japan Aggressive War Against China!

On the morning of August 6, marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, amid an unprecedented rise in the threat of a new nuclear war, the s anti-war anti-nuke rally sponsored by the August 6 Hiroshima Grand Action Organizing Committee was held in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome. As many as 650 people, led by atomic bomb survivors and their second and third generations, forcefully repelled the violent repression by of the Hiroshima Prefectural Police in riot gears. The participants condemned US imperialism’s Trump administration and Japanese imperialism’s the Ishiba administration, which promote nuclear war, and cried “No more Hiroshima and Nagasaki” from the A-bombed site to the world. A historic struggle by workers and people to prevent US and Japanese imperialism from launching a war of aggression against China—and its full-scale plunge into world war—has begun. (see full text of the August 6, 2025 Hiroshima Appeal below)

We Shall not be moved!

Following the direction of the Ishiba government, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, ignoring the protests of numerous atomic bomb survivors, Hiroshima citizens, and the local bar association, imposed unjustified entry restrictions on the Peace Park area beginning at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday August 6, just as he did last year, and took the outrageous step of banning rallies in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome, a completely unconstitutional action. However, those who rallied in response to the call of the Hiroshima Grand Action Organizing Committee held a rally in front of the Dome the night before, starting at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday August 5, and then launched into an all-night sit-in protest. They resolved to defend the Dome to the death, no matter what state violence they faced.

After 4:00 a.m. on the 6th, Hiroshima city officials appeared in front of the Dome with security guards and the riot police and demanded that the rally participants “leave,” but as usual, they were unable to provide any legal justification. Facing a packed participants who tightly locked arms, even more so than last year, the riot police were unable to intervene even after the 5:00 a.m. when Peace Park restrictions were due to begin. However, as the US-Japan imperialists’ war of aggression against China literally prepares for a new nuclear war, the Japanese imperialists and Ishiba can no longer tolerate the unyielding continuation and expansion of the anti-war and anti-nuke protests in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As if embodying this brutal war, the riot police began pulling out the participants one by one at 5:30 AM,. To remove one person, four or five riot police officers grabbed the arms and legs, strangled, pressed against the torsos, and teared the clothing, unleashing illegal violence. They then committed the unforgivable state crime of fabricating “assault” charges against two protesters and unjustly arresting them.

But the rally participants’ firm anti-war and anti-nuke resolve was in no way shaken by the police’s violence. Their anger and fighting spirit toward the Japanese imperialist state power blazed ever stronger, and they formed an arm-in-arm formation with even greater strength. As it took minutes to remove even one person, the riot police quickly grew exhausted, while the rally participants maintained an orderly scrum and chanted slogans for complete condemnation. As they continued to defend the area in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome, forming a double- and triple-layered human chain to blockade the area, President Hiro Yajima and other Zengakuren students, as well as Chiaki Akamine from the Okinawa Chapter of Grand March Against Constitutional Revision and War took turns taking to the microphone. Others who had been unjustly removed from the park, such as Yasuhiro Ikkanda, a second-generation atomic bomb survivor, continued their angry protests outside of the Park. By 7:00 p.m., the morning rally’s start time, the riot police had not even managed to remove 10% of the rally participants, and were finally forced to abandon their attempts to violently remove them.

The struggle in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome, led by Ikkanda and Atsuko Oe, co-chairs of the Grand Action Organizing Committee, continued unabated.

The rally defended with firm determination to prevent a nuclear war

“We successfully defended the A-bomb A-Bomb Dome Square!” the moderator, a member of Zengakuren, declared with a loud victorious voice, and all participants began the rally with a sense of triumph. Attorney Shunkichi Takayama (Co-chair of the Grand March Against Constitutional Revision and War), Tomoko Horaguchi (Suginami Ward Council member), defendants who were arrested last year on trumped-up charges of violating the Act on Punishment of Physical Violence Others of 1926 in connection with a protest they took part in in August 2023, a young worker from Fukushima, and workers and students from Hiroshima and around the country took to the mic one after another to condemn Trump, who described the bombings on Iranian nuclear facilities as “essentially the same as Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Ishiba, who advocates “nuclear sharing” (i.e., the deployment of U.S. nuclear missiles in Japan), and Mayor Matsui, who is at the vanguard of this movement and seeks to crush the anti-nuclear movement. They also expressed their determination to absolutely prevent nuclear war. Yasuyuki Yagi from the Grand Action Organizing Committee read the August 6th Hiroshima Appeal 2025. After a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m., the time of the atomic bombing, everyone departed for an angry demonstration approaching the Peace Memorial Ceremony site.

Demonstration in condemnation of Ishiba’s attendance at the ceremony

The demonstrators marched with great spirit, boldly defying the restrictions and repression from authorities that have been escalating since last year, and attracted more attention and sympathy than usual from the roadside.

At the ceremony, Ishiba hypocritically quoted a tanka poem by an atomic bomb survivor and spoke, “We pledge to realize a world without nuclear war and a world without nuclear weapons.” It is the speech by the very man who is launching an aggressive war against China, a nuclear war under the banner of “nuclear deterrence.” The demonstrators denounced Ishiba’s attendance at the ceremony and carried on with their demonstration.

August 6, 2025 Hiroshima Appeal

Friends and Comrades who have gathered in the Atomic Bomb Dome Square on the 80th Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Day,

The Trump administration’s June 21 airstrike on Iran and Trump’s outrageous remarks justifying it as “essentially the same as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” exposed the true nature of imperialism, which is willing to wage a preemptive nuclear strike to advance its own interests and prolong its life. Trump has made it clear to the world that “peace through strength” and “deterrence” do not mean mere possessing of nuclear weapons or military power, but rather actually using them to crush their enemy. We have entered an era of nuclear war, a world war, involving the entire world.

As all imperialist powers are driving for survival and rush toward their own massive military build-up and nuclear war, Japan is also diving ahead with a war of aggression against China, with the prospect of nuclear war in mind. On July 10, nuclear-weapon states Britain and France announced an agreement to co-ordinate their respective nuclear deterrents. The UK has drawn up a new defense plan, proposing the development of nuclear submarines and new nuclear warheads. It has also promised “tenfold increase in lethality” by acquiring fighter jets capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons. Germany, under the banner of “Europe’s strongest conventional military,” is rushing ahead with a massive build-up and is about to submit a bill to parliament to reinstate conscription.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the Palestinian Gaza Strip has exceeded 60,000, and the invasion and genocide perpetrated by US President Trump and Israeli President Netanyahu are accelerating, with the number of people dying of starvation continuing to rise. They have even announced plans to build a concentration camp under the name of a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza. Israel’s horrific act of literal ethnic cleansing and elimination of its residents is being openly carried out with the protection and support of imperialism.

Late last month, reports emerged that the Japan Self-Defense Forces repeatedly requested “nuclear threats” from the US military during joint US-Japan war games in preparation for an aggressive war against China. The United States has adopted a strategy of using tactical nuclear weapons with its allies against China and Russia to avoid nuclear retaliation against the US mainland, and the demand for “nuclear threats” means that the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the US military would jointly operate nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation has proposed that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces aircraft be equipped with tactical nuclear weapons, in conjunction with the deployment of US nuclear missiles in Japan. The extended nuclear deterrence being pursued by Japan and the US is nothing other than nuclear sharing (effectively nuclear armament).

This year’s August 6-9 struggle is a historic showdown to prevent imperialist nuclear war and defeat imperialism, the root cause of genocide and war. It is a struggle to overthrow the Japanese government, the Ishiba administration, which is rushing headlong into an aggressive war against China in tandem with the US, preparing nuclear war.

Shortly after the Second World War, atomic bomb survivors, undaunted by the violence of police, city officials, and right-wingers, staged sit-ins and led demonstrations, calling for “no war” and “no more Hiroshima.” During the Korean War, speaking out against the war was made a crime, but atomic bomb survivors fought back. Now, Hiroshima City, right-wingers, and the Hiroshima Prefectural Police are repeating the same repression, saying, “August 6th is Memorial Day. Be quiet.” Last year’s crackdown under the Act on Punishment of Physical Violence Others of 1926 (Boshoho) was the most notable example. However, our comrades who were detained in this crackdown last year have been taken back and are reuniting with us here. This repression is only strengthening our anti-war and anti-nuclear struggle. We are also beginning to see many comrades, including young people, students, and women, unite, recognizing that this is a genuine struggle.

The police authorities, terrified by the development of the August 6 Hiroshima struggle, arrested and indicted Koichiro Tamaru on trumped-up charges of obstruction of justice on June 5th, when he stood up to denounce the Emperor’s visit to Okinawa, which was a blatant attempt to deny Emperor’s responsibility for the war. Furthermore, on July 29th, they applied the Boshoho to two female students, and have continued to crack down on them.

This year, Ishiba and others who are adamant about nuclear war were once again invited to the peace ceremony, and the City of Hiroshima is protecting them by imposing even more restrictions and oppression than last year, suppressing anti-war anti-nuke voices. We will not tolerate these restrictions and oppression. We absolutely reject them. Let us fight powerfully to express the wishes of those who died in the atomic bombing, the Asian people killed in Japan’s war of aggression against Asia, and the Japanese working people, including soldiers, who were forced to die as part of war mobilization: Fight back and speak out louder! “We will never tolerate such a war of aggression again” “No more Hiroshima and Nagasaki!”

Let us rise up in the struggle to oppose and stop our own government’s war, and prevent another invasion of Asia and nuclear war. Let’s defeat Trump and Ishiba, who are pushing ahead with an aggressive war against China. a nuclear war.

August 6 Hiroshima Grand Action Organizing Committee