Hiroshima marks 70th anniversary of atomic bombing

Hiroshima, the city that suffered U.S. atomic bombing in 1945 during the World War Two, commemorated the 70th anniversary of the bombing on Thursday at the city’s Peace Memorial Park, with its mayor calling for peace and elimination of nuclear weapons.

Three B-29s made their way to the city from the Pacific island of Tinian on the morning of August 6, with the Enola Gay delivering its deadly payload at 8.15am local time.

Attendants this year included U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and representatives from more than 100 countries, including Britain, France and Russian Federation.

Doves fly over the Peace Memorial Park with the Atomic Bomb Dome, center, in the background.

Japan will submit a fresh resolution on the abolition of atomic weapons to the United Nations General Assembly in the autumn, he said.

Fast-forward to 2011 when a tsunami, triggered by a magnitude quake measuring 9.0 rocked the northern part of Japan, resulting in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

While Abe’s government has pushed to switch reactors back on, public opposition to atomic power remains high after Fukushima, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. But since visiting the peace museum here as a college student, the memory keeper, Yasukazu Narahara, has become nearly as ardent as Ms. Okada when it comes to making sure their fellow Japanese do not forget how the bombing came about and the devastation that nuclear weapons cause. He quickly dismissed that idea as unlikely, however.

Hiroshima’s major Kazumi Matsui echoed the importance of abolishing nuclear weapons and called for the creation of security systems that do not rely on military might. “Now’s the time to start out taking motion”.

Almost everything around it was incinerated, with the ground level hit by a wall of heat up to 4,000 degrees Celsius – hot enough to melt steel.

“I don’t know why I survived and lived this long”. “He was nonetheless 21 years previous and it pains me to assume he died so younger”.

Addressing 40,000 people who attended the commemoration ceremony at Hiroshima’s peace park near the epicentre of the 1945 attack, Abe called for worldwide nuclear disarmament.

Japan is marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Those who believe that it was justifiable to drop the bombs often argue that, compared to a land invasion of the main Japanese islands, Truman’s decision saved tens of thousands of American lives.

Alexander Iliyshev-Vvedenskiy, an official with the Japan division in the Russian Foreign Ministry, said there are documents that show that “there was a real chance to stop the war” before the bombings. On our last trip in April, we visited for the first time Hiroshima, now a modern, vibrant city that leaves little indication of ever being touched by war.

Japan has been, and will remain, a strong advocate for strengthening the safeguard system of the worldwide Atomic Energy Agency, an indispensable instrument for preventing any diversion of nuclear materials to nonpeaceful use.