Hiroshima remembered as lanterns light up the night

“The trauma felt by Japanese people after the Fukushima accident – and also by thousands of people affected by other nuclear disasters, such as Chernobyl – should never again be endured, which is why we firmly believe that peace – not war – is the best form of self defence”, said Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan Executive Director.

Opinion remains divided over whether the twin attacks were justified.

On Wednesday, the defence minister, Gen Nakatani, conceded the new security laws could – in theory – allow Japan to transport nuclear weapons to its allies, although he immediately dismissed the idea as “unlikely”. It was the sixth year of the Second World War, and more than 60 million people had been killed already. “If it hadn’t been for the lessons both the East and the West learned from Hiroshima, I don’t think that would have happened”. He was stationed 5,600 miles away from Japan, in Nuremberg, Germany, in August 1945, and understands clearly the gravity of the nuclear assault the U.S. waged.

After the ceremony, a group formed by victims of the atomic bombing expressed to Abe their hope that the government could retract the security bills but got negative answer from the prime minister.

Children stage a die-in in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan at 8:15am, the time atomic bomb exploded over the city, on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, western Japan Thursday, August 6. In short, “never again’ resonates powerfully with the Japanese”.

“Today Hiroshima has been revived, and has become a city of culture and prosperity”, he said. “Only 18% of the public supports CSD”, Kingston added.

In June, China accused the Philippines of roping in Japan over its contentious claims to the Spratly Islands, also known to the Chinese as Nansa.

A medical researcher who worked hand in hand with the U.S. Atomic Bomb Medical Team in Nagasaki, Dr. James Yamazaki, had seen the horrifying effects of radiation on the victims. There was the buzz of the plane, the huge flash, the cries for water, the kids like ghosts with skin dangling off them, the people with their guts hanging out.

“Many precious lives were lost and the city was ruined”, Abe, wearing a black tie and suit with a white rosette, said at the ceremony.

The Global Times tabloid, which is published under the People’s Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, conceded in an editorial that it was “understandable” for Japan to recall the bombing.

Before the Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011, one-third of its electricity was generated from atomic energy.

August 6 is not a holiday on anyone’s calendar.

“You could argue that the lessons learned from Hiroshima were somewhat mixed”. Even to this day, Japan avowedly opposed nuclear arms and it is one major source of disagreement between India and Japan over the supply of nuclear energy source.

Razed to ground, this is how Hiroshima looked after nuclear bombing.

In the following decades, many military theorists have worked hard to come up with strategies that would make nuclear weapons useful in war, and many scientists and engineers have worked on new techniques and technologies that would achieve the same objective.