The big bell rang on Thursday morning in Hiroshima on the 75th anniversary of the first atomic bomb attack in history, at the beginning of a commemorative ceremony from which the mayor called on all countries to reject selfish nationalism and unite to fight all threats.
Due to anti-epidemic measures, entry to the Peace Memorial Park for the commemorative ceremony this year was limited to survivors and their families.
Given the significance of the 75th anniversary of the bombing, in which 140,000 people were killed, despite the Covid-19 epidemic, the city authorities, with strict precautions, nevertheless decided to hold a commemoration.
- On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb destroyed our city. It was said then that nothing would grow here for the next 75 years, and yet Hiroshima recovered and became a symbol of peace – said, Mayor Kazumi Matsui.
The sky was clear on August 6, 1945, when at 8:15 a.m. the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on the city, killing 140,000 people on the same day and in the following weeks.
On Thursday, just in time for the bomb to explode, a bell rang as those gathered at the Memorial Park in the intense summer heat quietly paid tribute to the victims.
Mayor Matsui recalled the flu pandemic of 1918 that took millions of lives and terrorized the world because, he pointed out, countries at war in World War I could not face the scourge together.
- There was a strengthening of nationalism which led to World War II and the atomic bomb attack. We must never allow this painful past to be repeated. Civil society must reject egocentric nationalism and unite against all threats, Matsui said.
Three days after Hiroshima, another Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Japan capitulated on August 15, paving the way for the end of World War II.
