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Japan marks 60th anniversary of Hiroshima
Saturday, 06 August , 2005, 08:06
Hiroshima:: With wreaths, prayers and emotional calls for the abolition of all nuclear weapons, the Japanese city of Hiroshima is marking the 60th anniversary of the world's first atomic attack.
A relative of one of Hiroshima's more than 140,000 dead joined a child in ringing a bell at 8:15 am, the exact moment 60 years ago when a single US bomb flattened the city.
Under a scorching sun, some 55,000 people recited silent prayers and laid flowers before a memorial to the dead within sight of the famous A-bomb dome, a former exhibition hall burned to a skeleton by the bomb's incinerating heat.
"Today, we are all Hibakusha," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a speech read in his name, using the Japanese word for victims of nuclear bombings.
Before dawn, residents of Hiroshima ranging from workers in uniform to old men walking with canes gathered at the memorial in the heart of the city to burn incense, lay flowers and say prayers for the dead.
Michie Kakimoto, a slender 79-year-old who needs a cane to walk, said she still "cannot explain" the suffering she endured on August 6, 1945.
"For more than 50 years after the war, I couldn't come here. And I can't visit the museum," she said.
With another 5,375 survivors of the Hiroshima bombing dying in the past year, leaders recommitted themselves to keeping alive the memories of the horror 60 years ago.
Annan said that for all the pledges not to repeat the tragedy of 60 years ago, "Sadly, the world has made little progress."
"We are witnessing continued efforts to strengthen and modernize nuclear arsenals. We also face a real threat that nuclear weapons will spread," he said.
"Without concerted action, we may face a cascade of nuclear proliferation," Annan said in a statement read in his name by Nobuyasu Abe, the UN undersecretary for disarmament.
The 60th anniversary of the world's first nuclear attacks comes amid tension with both North Korea and Iran, which are locked in heated negotiations with the international community over their nuclear ambitions.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba named nuclear states by name, accusing them of threatening humanity by their "selfish" attachment to nuclear weapons.
He called for the United Nations to take concrete action to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020, but acknowledged a UN meeting in May made little progress reviewing the main treaty on ending the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
He said the conference "left no doubt that the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and a few other nations wishing to become nuclear-weapon states are ignoring the majority voices of the people and governments of the world, thereby jeopardizing human survival."
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, speaking somberly after laying a wreath before a coffin listing the names of nuclear victims, recommited Japan to "take the lead in the international community" on nuclear disarmament.
Amid tension with neighboring countries over Japan's history, Koizumi also said Japan was steadfast in its post-World War II pacifism.
"We are the only nation in human history that suffered from atomic bombing," Koizumi said.
"With strong determination not to repeat the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan continues to keep its peace constitution and stick to the three non-nuclear principles," Koizumi said, referring to Japan's 1967 commitment not to produce, possess or allow the entry into its territory of nuclear weapons.
The Hiroshima bombing killed more than 140,000 people either immediately or in the months that followed from horrific burns or radiation. The United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on August 9 on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000 people. Emperor Hirohito surrendered on August 15.
