Japanese Emperor Naruhito, accompanied by Empress Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko, paid respects Friday to victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki as the city marked the 80th anniversary of the attack.
The imperial family bowed deeply and placed white bouquets at the cenotaph for atomic-bomb victims at the hypocenter in Nagasaki Peace Park. The visit, Naruhito’s first to Nagasaki since becoming emperor and the first for Princess Aiko, concluded a wider series of commemorative visits this year to battlefields and sites hit hard during World War II.
The United States dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki at 11:02 a.m. on Aug. 9, 1945. The blast and its immediate aftermath killed more than 70,000 people by the end of that year. The Nagasaki attack came three days after the U.S. dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, which destroyed much of that city and led to an estimated 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945. Japan announced its surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II and the country’s nearly half-century of military expansion in Asia.
Naruhito has emphasized the need to remember wartime suffering and to pass those memories to younger generations. This year he visited Hiroshima and other sites of intense fighting and loss, including the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa, where tens of thousands of Japanese, including many Okinawan civilians, and thousands of U.S. service members died.
In April, the emperor and empress went to Iwo Jima to pay tribute to roughly 20,000 Japanese and nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines killed in that battle. In June, Naruhito visited Okinawa to mourn about 188,000 Japanese — roughly half of them civilians from Okinawa — and about 12,000 Americans killed during that campaign. In July, he and Empress Masako traveled to Mongolia to honor Japanese prisoners of war who endured harsh conditions there.
The Nagasaki itinerary included a planned visit to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum to observe exhibits and meet survivors. The imperial family was also scheduled to visit a nursing home for atomic-bomb survivors on Saturday. Many survivors, whose average age now exceeds 86, have long campaigned for the abolition of nuclear weapons and have voiced frustration in recent years over what they see as a growing global nuclear threat.
Residents lined the streets as the imperial motorcade passed. Hundreds of people waved small rising-sun flags and called the royal family’s names; the emperor, empress and princess lowered their windows to acknowledge the crowd and returned their waves. In the evening, thousands of Nagasaki residents planned to hold up lanterns from a rooftop visible from the royal family's hotel to welcome the visitors.
Naruhito’s visits this year have been framed as gestures of remembrance and atonement tied to the wartime actions of earlier generations, including his grandfather, Emperor Hirohito. Officials and historians say the visits are intended to honor those who died and to encourage wider public reflection on the human cost of war.
Survivors’ groups and peace activists continue to press for nuclear disarmament and broader efforts to prevent a recurrence of wartime suffering. As Japan observes the 80th anniversary of the bombings, the imperial family’s visits underscore ongoing national conversations about memory, responsibility and the lessons of World War II.