Asia-Pacific

Hiroshima marks 65th atomic bomb anniversary

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-06 09:46

HIROSHIMA - Japan's Hiroshima marked the 65th atomic bomb anniversary on Friday, calling for a world free of nuclear weapons.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offers a wreath in front of the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima August 6, 2010, on the 65th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing on the city. The Japanese city of Hiroshima, reduced to ashes by a US nuclear bomb in 1945, held its annual commemoration of that attack on Friday, but this will be the first year that a US representative will take part. [Agencies]

UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon attended the ceremony in Hiroshima Peace Park, becoming the first UN chief to attend the annual ceremony. Before Hiroshima, he also for the first time visited Nagasaki, the second Japanese city the United States dropped an atomic bomb on during World War II.

Ban was joined by representatives from over 70 countries, including US Ambassador to Japan John Roos, who was the first US representative to do so, and French and British officials.

"I feel honored to be the first UN secretary general to take part in the peace memorial ceremony on the 65th anniversary. And I am deeply moved. ... I come here for world peace." Ban said.

Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba delivered a speech at the ceremony, urging the world to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020.

"Now the time is ripe for the Japanese government to take decisive action," he said. "It should begin to 'take the lead in the pursuit of elimination of nuclear weapons' by legislating into law the three non-nuclear principles, abandoning the US nuclear umbrella, legally recognizing the expanded 'black rain areas,' and implementing compassionate, caring assistance measure for all the aging hibakusha anywhere in the world."

A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 am, the time of detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, which killed about 100,000 people in a blink.

Also present at the ceremony was Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who vowed to adhere to Japan's three antinuclear principles.

On August 9, a second nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, and six days later, Japan surrendered. In the years since the war, many people have developed diseases that are considered related to exposure to radiation created by the bombs.