NEW YORK (Kyodo) -- The state parties to a U.N. treaty on banning nuclear weapons met in New York on Monday, with a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor's son repeating his call for the eradication of such arsenals.

The participants gathered for a full session at the world body's headquarters for the first time since Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading group of atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last fall.

The participants at the third meeting of the 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will discuss the doctrine of nuclear deterrence and adopt a declaration when its ends on Friday.

"For young cells exposed to atomic bombs in mothers' wombs, the effects of radiation are immeasurable," 79-year-old Jiro Hamasumi from Tokyo said in a speech at Monday's meeting.

Hamasumi was born six months after his mother was exposed to radiation in the 1945 U.S. atomic bomb attack on the western Japan city.

Calling the nuclear bomb the "devil's weapon," Hamasumi said, "We must not repeat the tragedy of the atomic bombings."

Japan, the only country attacked with atomic bombs, and countries with nuclear arsenals including the United States and Russia have not adopted the treaty.

The Japanese government did not send official observers to the first and second meetings in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and has not dispatched a representative for the ongoing round.

Atomic bomb survivor and campaigner Setsuko Thurlow, 93, who is in New York for the meeting, said she is "furious" that the Japanese government is absent. "It is truly shameful that Japan, which should be well aware of the issue, is not taking part."

"(The government) does not want to displease the United States," said Thurlow, who currently lives in Canada. "They need courage, but courage alone is not enough," she added, calling for governments and ordinary citizens to engage in dialogue.

Germany attended the previous two meetings as an observer, but the country's mission to the United Nations said Monday that Berlin was not sending a representative to the third meeting.

Japan has said that the issue of disarmament should be handled under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it has ratified.