“Little Boy“, dropped from the Enola Gay B-29 bomber, destroyed 90 percent of the city.
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Chiba was 3 years old when the bomb dropped but has vivid memories of a childhood lived in the austerity that followed. Its right hand pointing to the sky is said to “point to the threat of nuclear weapons”, while its left hand extending out symbolises peace, according to Japan’s national tourism agency’s website.
While some historians say that they prevented many more casualties in a planned land invasion, critics have said the attacks were not necessary to end the war, arguing that Japan was already heading for imminent defeat.
Today, tens of thousands of people stood for a minute of silence in Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time, the moment the bomb detonated seven decades ago.
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.
August 6 is the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.
The attacks were a last-ditch attempt to bring an end to the Second World War.
During a session of the Lower House’s Budget Committee, the prime minister emphasized that Japan’s principles of not possessing, producing or permitting nuclear weapons on Japanese territory remain unchanged. “It is our responsibility, and it is our duty”.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US ambassador Caroline Kennedy, and under- secretary for arms control Rose Gottemoeller, the most senior Washington official ever sent to the service, were in attendance. He was a physicist and leader of the Manhattan Project, the massive U.S. project that built the bombs.
The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building, later preserved as a monument – known as the Genbaku Dome – at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
People around the world have been using the NukeMap tool to input their city and see the devastating effect it would have had in wake of the bomb’s 70th anniversary. A “Don’t repeat the war” conference was held, and choirs performed.
“Those who were atomic bombed in Hiroshima, those people who died silently”.
The abolition of nuclear weapons is an urgent humanitarian necessity. “Our hearts go out to the survivors”, he said.
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After all, this is Obama we are talking about here and, if not for the good sense of the Japanese government, President Obama would have apologized for America’s actions yet again.
