Hiroshima marks 70th anniversary of atomic bomb
It was 70 years ago on this very date 6th August 1945 that the United States of America unleashed one of the most devastating weapon known to man kind- the atom bomb. Code named “Little boy”, the Uranium gun-type atom bomb was first dropped in the Japanese town of Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki 3 days later.
Bells then tolled and white doves were released into skies that were as clear blue as they had been on the morning of August 6 1945 when the US bomber, Enola Gay, flew over Hiroshima and released its historic payload — a weapon that the US argued spared lives by ending the Pacific war quickly, but whose justification remains bitterly debated.
A ceremony, attended by PM Shinzo Abe, was held at Hiroshima’s memorial park before thousands of lanterns are released on the city’s Motoyasu river.Addressing 40,000 people who attended the commemoration ceremony at Hiroshima’s peace park near the epicentre of the 1945 attack, Mr Abe called for worldwide nuclear disarmament.
He said that that atomic bomb not only killed thousands of people in Hiroshima but also caused unspeakable suffering to survivors.
“Today Hiroshima has been revived,” the prime minister said, “and has become a city of culture and prosperity.”
“Seventy years on I want to reemphasise the necessity of world peace.”
The prime minister’s speech was not delivered to complete silence, however. On the fringes of the peace park, and out of Mr Abe’s line of sight, several hundred pro-peace protesters shouted angry opposition to his security bills, and to the continued presence of US military bases in Japan.
