August 6 is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima 73 years ago. During the Second World War, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city and another one in Nagakasi three days later. 

On Aug.15, Japan surrendered unconditionally, marking the end of the deadliest armed conflict in human history, in which the Japanese military conducted heinous war crimes in Asia-Pacific countries, including China, Korea, Indonesia and Australia. The Japanese militarists surely deserved a heavy defeat.

However, the first and so far only use of nuclear bombs was deeply controversial and was strongly criticized worldwide, particularly because it cost thousands of innocent civilian lives and created a monstrous legacy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where people are plagued by chronic health problems related to nuclear remnants.

A ceremony commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima is held at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6, 2018. /VCG Photo 

On another spectrum, the bombing started a nuclear age, which culminated in the Cold War when the two superpowers the US and the former Soviet Union stockpiled nuclear warheads numbered at 30,000 and 40,000 respectively at their peak.

As pointed out in a 2018 UN Office for Disarmament Affairs report "Securing Our Common Future," "the last cold war arms race generated substantial global concern about the economic and social sustainability of the unchecked annual growth in military spending." Since then countries around the world have been taking measures, trying to rein in this dangerous tendency of attempting to defend national security with the shield of nuclear arms. 

Major treaties on nuclear disarmament and their significance

On March 5, 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) went into force. It is the cornerstone of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. A total of 191 states have joined the treaty, including the five nuclear powers – the US, Russia, China, the UK and France. More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement. 

On September 10, 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which prohibits all nuclear explosions whether for military or civilian uses, was adopted.

The UN Disarmament Commission in its report of April 30, 1999, recommended a set of principles and guidelines for the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ). The regions covered in treaties involving NWFZ include Latin America and the Caribbean, South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia. 

On April 8, 2010, the treaty between the US and  Russia on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms was signed. More widely known as the New START Treaty, this arms control accord reduced each side’s deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 in 2018. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres (2nd R) is applauded after a speech at the signing ceremony for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in New York, September 20, 2017. /VCG Photo 

On July 7, 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted. It's considered as an important milestone in the treatment of disarmament as it is the first legally binding international instrument for the prohibition of nuclear weapons leading to their total elimination. 122 nations voted in favor of its adoption.

Challenges remain

Despite the treaties signed with the best intentions to curb or even eradicate nuclear arms, a nuclear-weapon-free world still seems far off.

According to data compiled in June this year by the Washington-based Arms Control Association, the world's nuclear-armed states possess a combined total of roughly 15,000 nuclear warheads, with over 90 percent belonging to the US and Russia. It was also revealed that nearly 9,600 warheads are in military service. 

Apart from the still large nuclear inventories, relevant factors, including the precarious Iran nuclear deal and the uncertainty of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, are still triggering concerns from time to time. 

In some experts' eyes, the biggest challenge to nuclear disarmament would be to put words into action.

Speaking at a 2015 UN conference, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom laid out several key challenges to complete disarmament, with the first challenge being to address the disconnection between commitments and implementation. 

The inertia in implementation is indeed an important reason. However, more damaging to the world’s anti-nuclear weapon efforts than that would be the active seeking of being even a stronger nuclear possessor by some countries.

In February this year, the US Defense Ministry officially published its 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The document stated the long-term US goal is to eliminate nuclear weapons and emphasized repeatedly the country’s need to enhance nuclear deterrence against so-called “adversaries.”  

Screenshot of the cover of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review.

It also called for the buildup of modern, flexible and resilient nuclear capabilities, requiring an additional funding of three to four percent of the annual US defense budget over more than a decade to replace its aging systems.

The report was met with doubts and criticism from an array of countries, including China, with the main worry being that it could trigger a new arms race. 

In the meantime, the US government holds a double standard toward other countries’ nuclear capabilities. 

It condoned its biggest ally Israel when the latter secretly developed nuclear weapons in the 1960s and has been equivocal about Japan’s long-term activities in extracting plutonium, a key element in the making of a nuclear bomb.  

Contrarily, the US, particularly the current Trump administration, has been relentlessly slamming Iran even after the latter signed a deal to promise to keep its nuclear activities at a civilian level, and eventually withdrew from the accord in May this year – a move almost universally condemned as destructive. 

It is a consensus among all that nuclear weapons should be annihilated, but a path full of hurdles remains if the biggest nuclear power in the world refuses to take concrete and expedited actions.    

British author and political activist Owen Jones once said, “The nightmare of nuclear apocalypse hangs over humanity. It will one day become a reality unless we stop it.”