Remembering Hiroshima
Months after India and Pakistan became the newest nations to join the growing club of nuclear-armed nations, the people of Hiroshima on Friday remembered the world's first atomic attack 54 years ago, vowing to keep working toward international peace and nuclear disarmament.
About 50,000 people attended the annual ceremony. A moment of silent prayer commenced at 8:15 a.m. -- the moment that a U.S. atomic bomb exploded above the city on Aug. 6, 1945.
Addressing those gathered in the Peace Memorial Park, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi pledged anew that Japan would work toward a world without nuclear weapons, despite an apparent deterioration of late in global security.
Â"The course toward the abolishment of nuclear weapons is still in a severe situation,Â" Obuchi said.
In Hiroshima's annual peace declaration, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba praised the blast's survivors and urged the world to adopt their willpower in the struggle for disarmament.
Â"They were able to transcend the infernal pain and despair and to opt for life,Â" Akiba said.
About 140,000 people were killed by the atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 70,000 people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.
This year's bombing anniversary comes amid rising fears around Asia.
India and Pakistan recently skirmished over Kashmir; Taiwan's war of words with China escalated with Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's assertion of the island's statehood; and North Korea is widely expected to test-fire another missile soon, this time one with enough range to reach the United States.
Even in Japan, deeply committed to peace both by the horror of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings and by a U.S.-written constitution that bars its military from any but defensive action, there is talk about the need for a new approach to security.
Demonstrating the Japanese peopleÂ's jitters, seventy percent of those polled this week by the mass-circulation Yomiuri newspaper said they were concerned about the outbreak of a war in Â"areas surrounding Japan.Â" As is usual with Japanese polls, no margin of error was given.
The names of 5,071 people who were in Hiroshima on the day of the bombing and who have died since last year's anniversary Friday were added to a monument dedicated to the victims. The number of names on the cenotaph now stands at 212,116.
Following the mayor's declaration, about 1,500 doves were released into the sky as 300 children sang a song of peace.
©1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed