Hiroshima today observed the 65th anniversary of the city’s atomic bombing during the closing days of World War II.
“On this, the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing, as we offer to the souls of the A-bomb victims our heartfelt condolences, we hereby declare that we cannot force the most patiently enduring people in the world, the hibakusha (survivors of the bombing), to be patient any longer,” Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in his peace proclamation. “Now is the time to devote ourselves unreservedly to the most crucial duty facing the human family, to give the hibakusha, within their lifetimes, the nuclear-weapon-free world that will make them blissfully exclaim, ‘I’m so happy I lived to see this day.'”
It was here at 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, during the closing weeks of World War II, that the first atomic bomb was dropped on a city. The blast produced a mushroom cloud and killed 140,000 people and left thousands more homeless. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, which killed an estimated 80,000 people, closing the chapter on the second World War.
This year’s ceremony made headlines as Ambassador John Roos attended.
“It’s the first time that an American ambassador has gone to Hiroshima and paid his respects,” Robert J. Einhorn, special advisor for nonproliferation and arms control, said during a Wednesday press conference.
“This is an administration led by a president who believes in the vision of a world without nuclear weapons,” Einhorn added. “…President Obama is not naïve. He knows that you can’t achieve a world without nuclear weapons overnight, but you’ve got to begin that process, and you have to set your sights on that vision. And that’s what President Obama has done, and that’s why Ambassador Roos is making the trip.”
Once known more for its role in ending World War II, Hiroshima today is a major tourist attraction, and each year thousands of visitors from Japan and around the world flock to this western Japanese city.
