Hiroshima attack 70th anniversary: Shinzo Abe calls for global nuclear disarmament

A rosary, a sake container, a student’s cap, 20 items in all, provide a personal connection to the tens of thousands who were killed instantly after the United States bombed the Japanese cities to bring an end to World War II. He also said the country needs the legislation in order to maintain peace for the Japanese people. On August 9, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing 40,000 instantly.

“It carries the threat of nuclear weapons development, and as the 2011 Fukushima disaster demonstrated to the world, nuclear energy is neither safe, nor clean”, said Junichi.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, a Hiroshima native, wrote in an article for CNN that progress in eliminating atomic bombs has been “much too slow”.

China has repeatedly called for an apology from Japan for the country’s war crimes.

Hamilton is a sister city to Fukuyama Japan, which is about an hour from hiroshima. But, bad weather there forced the mission to switch to Nagasaki.

On Thursday, political leaders, aging survivors and ordinary citizens gathered at 8:15 a.m.to mourn the moment when the city unwillingly became part of the world’s introduction to the nuclear age.

The attack, 70 years ago today, would have left numerous people in these pictures with acute radiation poisoning, which would have killed them in weeks.

Hiroshima’s mayor – Kazumi Matsui – used the event to make a direct appeal to Barack Obama, pleading with him to rid the world of nuclear weapons, as he promised to in 2009. But it’s wrong for us to be indifferent to the risks of wars, for once the war broke out again, it’s too late.

Despite the ferocity of the final months of the war, Japan and the US swiftly rebuilt their relationship and often refer to their alliance as the “cornerstone” of security in the region.

Included on display are a watch whose hands stopped at the time when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city, and the Hiroshima Panels, joint works by the artists Iri Maruki, a Hiroshima native, and his wife Toshi Maruki.

In a meeting with Japan’s foreign minister, Mr Kerry added that the US was committed o reducing existing stockpiles of atomic bombs in negotiations with Russian Federation.

About 50,000 people attended the ceremony in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, including U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and global Security Rose Gottemoeller and representatives of about 100 other countries.

Activists held a rally at the Place de la Republique in Paris to mark the devastating atomic attack.