HIROSHIMA, Japan — Japan on Saturday observed the 71st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, with the city’s mayor calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
About 50,000 people attended the ceremony, offering a minute’s silence at 8:15 a.m., the time when a B-29 bomber dropped the bomb on the city in the closing days of World War II.
“Today, we renew our determination, offer heartfelt consolation to the souls of the atomic-bomb victims, and pledge to do everything in our power … to abolish nuclear weapons and build lasting world peace,” said Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui.
Representatives of 91 countries, including nuclear powers such as the United States, Britain, Russia and France, participated in the ceremony.
Matsui addresed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was at the ceremony, saying that “a nuclear-weapon-free-world would manifest the noble pacifism of the Japanese constitution.”
The prime minister wants to change the country’s war-renouncing constitution after his ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s victory in the July upper house elections.
Article 9 of Japan’s constitution prohibits the use of force to settle international disputes.
The first use of nuclear weapons against humans annihilated Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands instantly. By the end of 1945, about 140,000 people had died. A second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on Aug. 9.
The Health Ministry said the number of atomic bombing survivors stood at 174,080 as of March and that their average age was over 80. Many of them have suffered from the after-effects of radiation.
