CONDEMNED: The mayor of Nagasaki said the order trampled on people's efforts, who have been 'sweating blood and tears' for a world without nuclear weapons
A Japanese atomic bomb survivors group that won the Nobel Peace Prize has strongly criticized US President Donald Trump's surprise directive to begin nuclear weapons testing, calling it "utterly unacceptable."
More than 200,000 people were killed when the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the only time nuclear weapons have been used during warfare. Survivors have battled decades of physical and psychological trauma, as well as the stigma that often came with being a victim.
After Trump on Thursday said that he had ordered the Pentagon to start nuclear weapons testing to equal China and Russia, Nobel laureate Nihon Hidankyo sent a letter of protest to the US embassy in Japan.
The directive "directly contradicts the efforts by nations around the world striving for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons and is utterly unacceptable," the survivors group said in the letter.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki also condemned Trump's order, saying it "trampled on the efforts of people around the world who have been sweating blood and tears to realize a world without nuclear weapons."
"If nuclear weapons testing were to start immediately, wouldn't that make him unworthy of the Nobel Peace Prize?" Suzuki said.
Two other atomic bomb survivor groups based in Hiroshima issued statements of protest, saying: "We strongly protest and firmly demand that no such experiments be conducted."
"In a nuclear war, there are no winners or losers; all of humanity becomes the loser," the Hiroshima Congress against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs and the Hiroshima Prefecture Federation of Atomic Bomb Victims Associations said in a joint statement, which was also sent to the US embassy in Japan.
"The inhumane nature of nuclear weapons is evident from the devastation witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki," it added.
The US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and then another on Nagasaki three days later.
About 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and about 74,000 others in Nagasaki, including many from the effects of radiation exposure.