Prime Minister Abe expressed his commitment to global dialogue. And one full of reminders – some delivered politely, some pointedly – of the most extreme dangers of modern warfare. In Hiroshima a bell tolled at 08:15 local time – when the US aircraft dropped the bomb that flattened the city centre.
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Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group gathered at Hollingworth Lake on Thursday night (6 August 2015) to commememorate the dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.
A ceremony was held at Hiroshima’s peace park near the center of the explosion, where PM Shinzo Abe addressed 40,000 people, calling for world peace and nuclear disarmament.
Sunao Tsuboi, an engineering student at Hiroshima University, was on his way to class less than a kilometre away from ground zero when the bomb exploded. Another bomb, “Fat Man” was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9.
Mayor Kazumi Matsui is renewing calls for world leaders to take action against nuclear weapons.
By the end of the year, some 140,000, including tens of thousands of Koreans and other non-Japanese, had died due to the bombing and its after-effects.
Sunao Tsuboi, 90, head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of Atomic Bomb Sufferers organizations, said that war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution lies at the core of Japan, calling on Abe to listen to the voices of people.
“It also underscores the importance of the agreement we’ve reached with Iran to reduce the possibility of more nuclear weapons“, said Kerry, who is attending a meeting of regional leaders in Kuala Lumpur.
At the time, and ever since, in the U.S. the bombing has largely been seen from a utilitarian point of view: The bomb was a tool to end a awful war and save American lives.
“President Obama and other policymakers”, he said, “please come to the A-bombed cities, hear the hibakusha (surviving victims) with your own ears, and encounter the reality of the atomic bombings”.
About 55,000 people from 100 countries attended the ceremony in Hiroshima. “The United Nations stands with them, resolved to realize their vision of a nuclear-weapon-free world”, said Mr. Ban.
Doves were released following the memorial tribute and thousands of lanterns were then released into the city’s Motoyasu river.
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Despite the ferocity of the final months of the war, Japan and the U.S. swiftly rebuilt their relationship and often refer to their alliance as the “cornerstone” of security in the region.
