In Japan residents and dignitaries in Hiroshima have been marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bomb in 1945 that resulted in around 140 000
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In Japan residents and dignitaries in Hiroshima have been marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bomb in 1945 that resulted in around 140 000 deaths.
It was the first time a nuclear weapon was used in aggression.
Wreaths were laid at the city’s Peace Park and a bell was rung at twelve minutes past eight in the morning – the precise time of the explosion.
The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the ceremony, as did the city’s Mayor Kazumi Matsui, and the US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy.
“Japan intends to renew its efforts to bring about a world without nuclear weapons, with the cooperation of both nuclear powers and the non-nuclear powers”, said Prime Minister Abe in his speech.
Together with the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki the two explosions marked the end of the Second World War, but the Japanese prime minister said that as well as the deaths, the bomb had caused unspeakable suffering to the survivors.