Japan marked the 65th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima on today with the United States represented at the ceremony for the first time.
The peace bell tolled at 8.15am, the time the bomb was dropped by the B-29 warplane Enola Gay on August 6, 1945, and tens of thousands of elderly survivors, children and dignitaries held a minute of silence under the burning summer sun.
“Clearly, the urgency of nuclear weapons abolition is permeating our global conscience,” Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in a speech followed by the release of white doves.
The Hiroshima bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy”, released a mix of shockwaves, heat rays and radiation, killing thousands instantly.
By the end of 1945, the death toll had risen to some 140,000 out of an estimated population of 350,000. Thousands more died of illness and injuries later.
Three days after the Hiroshima attack, on August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, southern Japan. Japan surrendered six days later, ending the military aggression that brought it into World War Two.
The United States, involved in a row with Japan over the relocation of a US air base on the southern island of Okinawa, sent a representative to the ceremony for the first time, reflecting US President Barack Obama’s push to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
“We want nuclear disarmament and if the United States takes the lead, other countries may follow its steps,” said Tomiko Matsumoto, a 78-year-old atomic bomb survivor.
“First I hated them (the United States), but that hatred (against the United States) has disappeared. Now I want to see a peaceful world.”
Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year in part for his vision of a nuclear-free world, signed a strategic arms agreement with Russia in April that commits the former Cold War foes to cut deployed nuclear warheads by about 30 per cent.
“We see new leadership from the most powerful nations,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the ceremony, the first UN leader to attend. “We must keep up this momentum.”
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that Japan, the only nation to have suffered nuclear attacks, will lead other nations to realise a world without nuclear arms.
Japan has a self-imposed ban against the possession, production and the letting of nuclear arms into the country, part of its pacifist post-war constitution.
The ruling Democratic Party, wary of giant neighbour China’s growing military might, plans a defence review by the end of the year
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