The anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was commemorated today at a ceremony organised by the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
The ceremony - which marked the 63rd anniversary of the US nuclear attack on the two Japanese cities - was held at the site of a cherry tree on Dublin’s Merrion Square. The tree was planted by the CND in 1980 to mark Hiroshima Day that year.
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Brian Bermingham sent messages of solidarity yesterday to the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively to mark the anniversary of the bombings in August 1945.
Mr Bermingham said the names Hiroshima and Nagasaki “stand for the massive destructiveness of nuclear weapons and for the strength of human spirit needed to overcome such destructiveness”. He added that such events must never be allowed to happen again.
More than 140,000 people were killed when the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. An estimated 80,000 people were killed three days later, when the US dropped another bomb on the city of Nagasaki.
Japan surrendered on August 15th, six days after the second atomic bomb was dropped.