U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday likened last weekend’s American air-strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, telling reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague that the assault “ended the war” in the Middle East just as the World War II bombings ended hostilities with Japan.
Trump said the 22 June strike “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program and forced a ceasefire in the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict. He rejected a leaked U.S. intelligence assessment indicating the damage might delay Tehran’s enrichment efforts by only months, calling the report “very inconclusive” and insisting the facilities have been set back “basically decades.”
U.S. media accounts describe the attack—code-named Operation Midnight Hammer—as involving seven B-2 Spirit bombers that dropped 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrators on deeply buried sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. A senior U.S. official said no additional strikes are planned, and Trump signalled talks with Tehran could begin next week.
The Hiroshima comparison sparked swift condemnation in Japan. Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya called the remarks “very regrettable,” while Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged Trump to visit the city to understand the human cost of nuclear weapons. Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said any suggestion the 1945 bombings were justified is “unacceptable.”
Survivor group Nihon Hidankyo, awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, led protests, and the Hiroshima city assembly passed a resolution rejecting statements that appear to justify atomic bomb use. About 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki in 1945, figures Japanese officials cited in urging that such devastation never be repeated.
NEW - Donald Trump should visit Hiroshima to see the effects of nuclear weapons, the Japanese city's mayor said Wednesday after the US president likened the 1945 atomic bombings to recent air strikes on Iran.
