Japan MP says US must be held accountable for atomic bombs

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Chair of the New Party Daichi and member of Japan's upper house, Muneo Suzuki, urged the US on Wednesday to take accountability for the atomic bombings of the two Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima during WWII, and apologize to the Japanese people.

Japan will host the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19 to 21, 2023. 

Japanese media, earlier this week, claimed that US President Joe Biden will visit Nagasaki on his trip to the Japan G7 summit. Suzuki responded to these reports via his personal website and explained that "even though 77 years have passed since the end of the war, the US, which dropped the atomic bombs, has never apologized or asked for forgiveness. It is the US that speaks loudly of "democracy, human rights, and freedom' about the actions of other countries. So, why not honestly tell Japan and the world what the US has done?"

Moreover, Suzuki noted that if Biden is to visit Japan, he must "say what he would really like to say," in that he ought to "tell the world" as well as the people of "Nagasaki and Hiroshima" that "the use [of nuclear weapons] is impossible; the use of atomic bombs was a mistake." 

If the trip to Nagasaki is confirmed, it will be the first time a sitting US president visits the atomic-bomb-hit southwestern Japanese city.

#Japan marked on Friday the 76th anniversary of the world's biggest crime against humanity. Where the #US dropped 2 atomic bombs within 3 days forcing Japan to surrender. pic.twitter.com/4QrWn5Lv2F

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) August 8, 2021

Pentagon to retire B83-1 thermonuclear gravity bomb

The United States will decommission the B83-1 thermonuclear gravity bomb, the country's most powerful atomic warhead, according to the US national defense strategy published by the Pentagon earlier in October. 

"The B83-1 gravity bomb will be retired due to increasing limitations on its capabilities and rising maintenance costs," the document, published on Thursday, said.

The US plans to use other existing opportunities in order to "hold at risk hard and deeply buried targets," the strategy said, adding that the defense ministry will develop a new tool, "working with its interagency partners and informed by existing concepts." 

In the late 1970s, the US developed the free-falling B83 thermonuclear aerial bomb that yields 1.2 megatons of energy. For comparison, the atomic bombs that targeted Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 were around 15 and 25 kilotons respectively. 

Citing diplomatic cables and other sources, Politico claimed on Thursday that the US hastened the deployment of a modernized B61-12 nuclear weapon at NATO bases in Europe, with a target date of the end of 2022 instead of 2023.

The modernized B61-12 atomic bomb's initial manufacturing sample was reportedly delivered to the Department of Defense by the US military-industrial complex in December 2021. Since 1968, the B61 aerial bomb has undergone several upgrades. The upgraded bomb can be dropped from the F-15, F-16, F-35, and Tornado, as well as the B2 and B-21 strategic bombers.

Read more: US nuclear weapons policy reactionary: National Interest