Nagasaki on Saturday warned of the intensifying threat of nuclear war as it marked the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, urging the world to learn from history and ensure the southwestern Japanese city remains the last to suffer such devastation.

"This existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth," Mayor Shiro Suzuki said in the Peace Declaration read during the annual memorial ceremony, laying out a bleak outlook for the world that is plagued with a "vicious cycle of confrontation and fragmentation."

In addition to calling on global leaders to outline a specific course of action for achieving the abolition of nuclear weapons, Suzuki also noted how Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading group of atomic bomb survivors awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, has inspired other citizens to work for peace across borders.

"Is it not this 'global citizen' perspective that will serve as the driving force behind stitching back together our fragmented world?" he said.

A moment of silence was observed at 11:02 a.m., when the plutonium device codenamed "Fat Man" was dropped by a U.S. bomber and exploded over the port city in the closing days of World War II. It followed the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, leaving Nagasaki as the last place to have suffered a nuclear attack.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, in his speech, vowed to uphold Japan's decades-long commitment of not possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons.

The Japanese government will work steadily to lead global efforts to bring about "a world without nuclear war and a world without nuclear weapons," Ishiba said, though he did not touch on the U.N. nuclear ban treaty that entered into force in 2021, despite renewed calls from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that Japan should join it.

The commemoration event at the Nagasaki Peace Park, located near the hypocenter, was attended by some 2,600 people, including officials from 94 countries and regions, as well as the European Union.

Last year's ceremony, which saw participation by a record 100 countries and regions plus the EU, was mired in controversy after the city did not invite Israel due to the conflict in the Gaza Strip, prompting the ambassadors of the United States and other members of the Group of Seven nations to snub the ceremony.

The city decided to adopt a more inclusive approach this year, sending invitations to all nations with diplomatic missions in Japan.

Representatives of Russia and its ally Belarus, which have been barred from attending since the invasion of Ukraine, attended for the first time in four years. Israel and Palestine were also present.

In the declaration, Suzuki recalled the first speech at the United Nations in 1982 by a Japanese atomic bomb survivor, the late Senji Yamaguchi, who called out "No more hibakusha" as he showed a photo of himself with severe scarring on his face and body from the burns he suffered as a 14-year-old due to the Nagasaki bombing.

"This cry from deep within his heart is the crystallization of the hibakusha's feelings," Suzuki said. Hibakusha is the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors.

Nihon Hidankyo, formerly known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons through witness testimony. It was formed during an antinuclear gathering in Nagasaki in 1956.

The so-called nuclear taboo that the survivors have helped to forge has been overshadowed by the threatened use of nuclear weapons in Russia's war against Ukraine, tensions in the Middle East and the growing reliance on nuclear deterrence.

While advocating for a world without nuclear weapons, Japan is among the countries that rely on the nuclear umbrella extended by the United States, the once wartime foe that turned into the Asian nation's closest ally. Japan has also been beefing up its defense in the face of China's military buildup and the North Korean nuclear and missile threats.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres stressed in a statement read out on his behalf that "peace and security cannot be achieved through an arms race" and urged countries to take action to strengthen the global nuclear disarmament regime, with the nonproliferation treaty at the forefront, complemented by "the momentum created by" the nuclear ban treaty.

Heavy rain fell intermittently throughout the early morning, but it did not stop survivors and activists from gathering at the Hypocenter Park and other significant sites related to the bombing.

Fumi Takeshita, an 83-year-old survivor who said she has suffered from various cancers since being exposed to the bombing, stressed that nuclear weapons must never be allowed. "They are not like ordinary weapons, they come with radiation, and once it's taken into the body, it never leaves."

Twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, a Catholic church heavily destroyed by the atomic blast and later rebuilt, rang in unison at 11:02 a.m. for the first time in 80 years.

The larger of the two bells survived the bombing and was dug out of the rubble, while the other was restored earlier this year in a project led by James Nolan Jr., a Catholic whose grandfather was involved in the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government research project that developed the first atomic bombs.

The nuclear attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, came three days after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, western Japan. It is believed to have killed around 74,000 people in the city by the end of the year and left many others suffering from its effects.

Japan surrendered on Aug. 15 of the same year, bringing an end to World War II.

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