TOKYO: Hiroshima on Thursday marked the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japanese city, with its mayor criticizing major powers for waging wars and urging them to stop justifying the possession of nuclear weapons as a method of deterrence. “Downplaying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and accepting the use of force to pursue one’s own prosperity risk cycles of violent retaliation that could ultimately result in another Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” Mayor Kazumi Matsui said. Takaichi has advocated a review of the principles for a possibility of dropping the third one — of not permitting nuclear weapons to be brought into the country. Survivors have expressed frustration and worry over growing support for the possession of nuclear weapons for deterrence by the international community, including Japan. Because of that, Japan’s government has rejected the survivors’ request to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or attend its meetings as observers.