As Japan marked on Wednesday (August 6) the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the world’s first atomic bomb in Hiroshima, survivors, now part of the country’s ageing population, have expressed bitterness over the lack of solution to the growing threat of nuclear weapons.

Most of the survivors of the World War II holocaust suffer the pain of the lingering memory of the deaths that followed the bombing and the growing support of global leaders for nuclear weapons as a tool of war.

The youngest among the survivors is now 86 years old, while most of those who are still alive have reached nearly 100.

At least 140,000 people died when the United States dropped the first atomic bomb at HIroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Some 70,000 more deaths were reported when the second bomb was exploded in Nagasaki three days later.

The mass deaths prompted Japan to surrender, five years after launching a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that started WWII.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui lamented the tendency of world leaders to support the use of nuclear weapons as part of their country’s defense

“These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” Matsui said.

He added: “They threaten to topple the peacebuilding frameworks so many have worked so hard to construct.”

A group of survivors called for swift action against nuclear weapons, saying that “we don’t have much time left” because the threat of nuclear warfare has become stronger and more dangerous than ever.

2024 Nobel Peace Prize awardee Nihon Hidankyo called for vigorous international support for nuclear abolition.

“Our biggest challenge now is to change, even just a little, nuclear weapons states that give us the cold shoulder,” said Nihon Hidankyo in a statement.