hiroshima

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Hiroshima holds 60th year memorial ceremony

On the 60th August 6 since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, 5,500 people, including Hibakusha (A-bomb victims), citizens, and various participants in the 2005 World Conference against A and H Bombs gave silent tribute at 8:15 a.m. at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony in the Peace Memorial Park in the city.

In the city-sponsored ceremony, Hiroshima City Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi read the Hiroshima Peace Declaration stating that it is a "time of inheritance, awakening, and commitment," in which we inherit the commitment of the hibakusha to the abolition of nuclear weapons and realization of genuine world peace." (For the text of the Hiroshima Peace Declaration, see separate item.)

Two primary school children read aloud a "Commitment to Peace," to "carry on the quest of the hibakusha."

In his address at the ceremony, Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro stated that he will "take a lead in the international effort to eliminate nuclear weapons." The speech was one of obscuring his public support for the U.S. Bush administration's preemptive nuclear attack strategy. Though he said that he will sincerely make efforts for measures to relieve hibakusha, he left Hiroshima without meeting with hibakusha and hearing them as in previous years. -- Akahata, August 7, 2005