Hiroshima commemorates 69th anniversary of atomic bombing

Hiroshima, Aug 6 (IANS) Hiroshima, the Japanese city that suffered US atomic bombing in 1945 during the World War II, commemorated the 69th anniversary of the bombing Wednesday at the city’s Peace Memorial Park.

Addressing survivors of the attack, their descendants, peace activists and officials, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui called nuclear weapons an “absolute evil” that robbed children of loving families and dreams for the future, reported Xinhua.

“To eliminate the evil, we must transcend nationality, race, religion, and other differences, value person-to-person relationships, and build a world that allows forward-looking dialogue,” the mayor said.

“We must continue as a nation of peace in both word and deed,” the mayor added.

For his part, Abe said during the ceremony that “as the only country to have come under nuclear attack in war and experience its horrors, Japan has a responsibility to realize a world without nuclear weapons, and to continue conveying their cruelty to future generations and to the world.”

To accelerate Japan’s surrender in the WW II, the US forces dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945 killing an estimated 140,000 people.

Another atomic bomb hit Nagasaki Aug 9 the same year, and Japan surrendered to Allied Forces Aug 15, six days after the Nagasaki nuclear attack, bringing an end to the war.