TOKYO (AFP) - Nagasaki on Sunday marked the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the Japanese city, as the mayor called nuclear weapons “absolute evil”, denounced growing support for nuclear deterrence and called on the Japanese government to adhere to its three postwar non-nuclear principles.
The anniversary coincided with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ’s government revising the country’s defense policy to further bolster the military’s offensive capability. Speculation has risen about whether Takaichi, who supports nuclear dissuasion, may allow nuclear weapons to be brought into the country, going against the third non-nuclear principle.
The U.S. launched the Nagasaki attack on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. 
Representatives from more than 90 countries attended the ceremony at the Peace Park and observed a moment of silence at 11:02am when a B-29 dropped a plutonium bomb known as “Fat Man”.
Suzuki singled out the Japanese government, demanding it uphold Japan’s war-renouncing constitution, attend the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons review conference later this year and stick to the three non-nuclear principles.
Takaichi supports the first two principles of not possessing and developing nuclear weapons.
The prime minister, who attended Sunday’s ceremony, reiterated her policy of taking “a realistic and pragmatic approach” toward achieving a world without nuclear weapons. As she did in Hiroshima, Takaichi remained ambiguous about the three non-nuclear principles and only reiterated that Japan currently maintains the policy.
Takaichi, in her speech at the ceremony, did not mention the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which Tokyo has refused to sign because Japan is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. 
Takaichi has refused to clarify whether she will maintain adherence to the three non-nuclear principles, and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi called last month for “discussion without a taboo” on the subject.
In December, an unnamed senior administration official told local media in an off-the-record session suggesting that Japan should possess nuclear weapons.
The remark was widely reported by major Japanese outlets including national broadcaster NHK and Asahi Shimbun, sparking public criticism.
The prime minister has already lifted Japan’s self-imposed ban on weapons exports and expanded defense spending, while pushing to amend the constitution.
Those policies have drawn rebukes from China, which accuses Japan of “new militarism” and Takaichi of bending to the whims of the far right.