Hiroshima survivors warn against Japan's rearmament

Japan on Thursday commemorates the 81st anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima .

On August 6, 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during the last days of World War II , killing close to 80,000 people in the initial blast. Three days later, the US dropped a bomb over Nagasaki.

"Japan adopted a pacifist constitution in reflection on World War II," noted Masako Wada, assistant secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo , or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers' Organizations.

Japan "earned the trust of the international community as a country that promised never to wage a war again," added Wada, who survived the Nagasaki bombing as a 1-year-old.

However, in recent years, Japan has increased defense spending, eased restrictions on weapons exports and expanded the role of its military, citing growing risks from China , North Korea and Russia .

"The current administration is destroying that [trust]," Wada told DW, referring to Japan's recent efforts to pivot away from decades of strict postwar pacifism.

"Japan's recent military buildup is no different from recreating the arms race that led the country toward World War II," said 84-year-old Masashi Ieshima, who survived the Hiroshima bombing at the age of 3.

Ieshima was playing in the entrance of his house, just 1.2 miles (2 km) from the hypocenter, when the blast shattered all the windows in the house, sending shards of glass into his mother.