Many atomic bomb survivors, including activist Setsuko Thurlow, have expressed their anger and frustration after the G7 summit in Hiroshima, at which the leaders of the most industrialized nations issued a statement supporting the possession of nuclear weapons for deterrence purposes without mentioning the nuclear ban treaty. weapons, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Sunday, Agerpres reported.

Setsuko Thurlow, 91, called the G7 summit a “colossal failure” and the “Hiroshima Vision for Nuclear Disarmament” statement presented by participants on the first day of the summit on Friday as “blasphemy against atomic bomb survivors”.

“I felt no movement, no warmth in the voices of the G7 leaders,” said Thurlow, who now lives in Canada. She was 13 in 1945 when her city of Hiroshima was destroyed by an American atomic bomb in August, killing about 140,000 people, including eight members of her family, including a 4-year-old grandson.

According to the Japan Confederation of Nuclear Bomb Victims Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), the G7 summit dashed hopes and expectations for nuclear abolition by turning into a pro-war conference, supporting nuclear deterrence and security under the “nuclear umbrella”.

“What was the point of holding the summit in Hiroshima?”

“Nuclear weapons are absolute evil and cannot coexist with humans,” Jiro Hamasumi, the group’s deputy secretary general, said at an online press conference.

“As a survivor of the atomic bombings, I am outraged,” added Hamasumi, 77, referring to the fact that the statement did not mention survivors or the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, instead advocating nuclear deterrence.

“What is the point of holding (the summit) in Hiroshima?” – added Hamasumi, who suffered from the bomb explosion while still in his mother’s womb.

The survivors want Japan to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which will enter into force in 2021. Japan did not want to do this, because for its own protection it relies on the “nuclear umbrella” of the USA, with which it has a connection with the long-standing security alliance, the Kyodo agency notes.

In an unprecedented gesture, G7 leaders, including nuclear powers the US, Britain and France, visited a peace museum in the Japanese city on the first day of the summit, which documents the disaster caused by the 1945 atomic bombing.

However, the survivors (“hibakusha” in Japanese) were unhappy that the details of the visit had not been disclosed.

“I would like to hear the leaders’ honest opinion about what they saw in the museum,” said 85-year-old Michiko Kodama, another survivor of the bombing.

G7 leaders laid wreaths at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima (Photo: Pool / G7 Hiroshima / Zuma Press / Profimedia)