Thousands Gather In Hiroshima To Mark 70th Anniversary Of Atomic Bombing

On August 6, 1945, the US atomic bomb “Little Boy” detonated about 2,000 feet above Hiroshima killing around 140,000 people.

“President Obama and other policymakers, please come to the A-bombed cities, hear the hibakusha (surviving victims) with your own ears, and encounter the reality of the atomic bombings”, Matsui said, referring to next year’s G-7 summit to be held in Japan, according to The Associated Press. What are the risks of nuclear war today?

Beyond Thursday’s commemorations, Japanese people – and Japan’s neighbors – are looking ahead to a statement that Abe is set to make August. 14, the day before the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. Their destructive power was unprecedented, incinerating buildings and people, and leaving lifelong scars on survivors, not just physical but also psychological, and on the cities themselves.

Japan marked the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima, the atomic bombing that took place in 1945, on Thursday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and foreign delegates were among the tens of thousands gathered in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park to observe a moment of silence at 8:15 am local time (2315 GMT), when the detonation turned the western Japanese city into an inferno.

Rose Gottemoeller, US undersecretary of state for arms control and worldwide security, will attend this year’s peace memorial ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the first time for a senior US government official to be sent from Washington to attend an annual ceremony.

Japan’s nationalist leader has been criticized for efforts to expand the role of his pacifist country’s Self-Defense Forces, changes that open the door to putting troops into combat for the first time since the war.

The attacks were a last-ditch attempt to bring an end to the Second World War.

350,000: Population of Hiroshima before the bombing, of which 40,000 were military personnel.

“If people continue to threaten each other with nuclear weapons, they obviously haven’t learned their lesson from 70 years ago”.

Abe told reporters in Hiroshima after the service that the statement will include reflection on the war, as well as how Japan will contribute to world peace in the future.

According to NPR, Hiroshima had been chosen by a US target committee to face the atomic bomb due for its compactness and its military facilities.

The university says on its website the exhibition is meant to “deepen understanding of the damage wrought by nuclear weapons and inspire peace in the 21st century”.