HIROSHIMA (Japan), Aug 6 – Hiroshima marked the 68th anniversary of the western Japanese city’s atomic bombing on Tuesday morning with representatives from 70 countries and the European Union (EU) calling for a world order based on trust and dialogue, Xinhua news agency reported.
The annual memorial ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in the city centre was attended by some 50,000 people including war survivors, bereaved family members and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Among them were also representatives from foreign countries and the EU, including 32 ambassadors to Japan such as U.S. Ambassador John Roos.
All attendees offered a silent prayer at 8:15 a.m. local time to remember the exact moment when the bomb was dropped in 1945.
After the prayer, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui made this year’s peace declaration, stating that the atomic bomb that stole the lives of innocent people is the “ultimate inhumane weapon and an absolute evil”.
The mayor admonished the world’s policymakers for their belief that they can continue to maintain national security by saber-rattling, urging them to shift to a system of security based on trust and dialogue.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke after the mayor, saying the deaths caused by the nuclear attack were too horrible for the Japanese to describe, and the Japanese people have a responsibility to abolish nuclear weapons and to pass on their personal experience of terror caused by Hiroshima bombing.
Abe also pledged to increase efforts to promote international disarmament and non-proliferation while firmly maintaining Japan’s Three Non-Nuclear Principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into its soil.
Many memorial events are scheduled throughout the day, including a ceremony where more than 10,000 paper lanterns are floated down a river next to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
– BERNAMA
