US Nuclear Bombings of Japan in 1945 Unjustified – UNGA Ex-Delegate

Commenting on the US nuclear bombings of Japan in 1945, a former delegate of UNESCO to the UN General Assembly told Sputnik that "there was no need to use atomic bombs at the end of World War II."

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Yulia Shamporova — On August 6, 1945, a US B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb that killed about 140,000 people in Hiroshima. A second bombing followed three days later, this time on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people.

According to former delegate of UNESCO to the UN General Assembly Somar Wijayadasa, the catastrophic consequences of the nuclear bombings saw some 200,000 people dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and, thereafter, many were born with defects due to radiation.

“Seventy years after learning the deadly effects and after-effects of these deadly weapons, all nuclear weapons must be eradicated from earth,” Somar Wijayadasa stressed.

Washington must offer an official apology to World War II victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, Wijayadasa told Sputnik.

“Absolutely yes,” Somar Wijayadasa said answering a question whether he agrees with some 60 percent of the Japanese who, according to a Populus poll conducted exclusively for Sputnik and released earlier in the day, would like to see an official US apology to the victims of the nuclear bombings.

The vast majority of Japanese — 74 percent of those polled by Populus for Sputnik — believe that the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot be justified by the war situation as it was apparent that they would entail the mass killing of civilians.

Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,004 adults aged 18-64 in Japan between 29 July — 2 August, 2015. Surveys were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all Japanese adults. Populus is a founder member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.