Japan pays tribute to atomic bomb victims

JAPAN: Hiroshima commemorated the 60th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack on Saturday with an emotional ceremony…

JAPAN: Hiroshima commemorated the 60th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack on Saturday with an emotional ceremony calling on the nuclear powers to "stop jeopardising the world".

Under a blazing summer sun, 55,000 people from across the world bowed their heads in the city's Peace Memorial Park at exactly 8.15am, the time the "Little Boy" bomb detonated overhead on August 6th, 1945.

Throughout the city, which was reduced to smouldering ruins by the impact of the blast, bells rang at temples and churches, and thousands observed a minute's silence in memory of the victims, who continue to die from cancers and other bomb-related diseases.

Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima, added another 5,375 names to the Peace Park cenotaph, bringing the official death toll to 242,437. The US and other members of the "nuclear club" are "jeopardising human survival" and "ignoring the majority voices of the people and governments of the world", he said in a speech, before appealing to the UN to work toward the "elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020".

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Near the iconic Atomic Bomb Dome, which was 600m beneath the blast's epicentre, 200 antiwar activists held a "die-in" at 8.15 as others, holding flags from across the world, appealed for a nuclear-free planet. Children floated paper lanterns representing the souls of the dead on the Motoyasu river.

The activists included 23-year-old Kate O'Connell, who came from Fermoy, Co Cork. "We may be a non-nuclear country but we are no longer a neutral country," she said. "The threat is growing and it should be our concern too." On stage in the Peace Park, a statement read out on behalf of UN secretary general Kofi Annan said the world must work to prevent a "cascade of nuclear proliferation".

A speech by prime minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed hope that "Hiroshima will continue to be the symbol of global peace". The speech angered a small group of Japanese anarchists some of whom wore T-shirts saying "kakuheiki kutabare" (f . . . nuclear weapons).

"Down with this fake peace ceremony!" shouted one, as they scuffled with police. One of the anarchists explained: "Koizumi is Bush's lapdog and he should go home. He has no right to be here talking about peace." The anarchists were escorted away from the dome by riot police.

In the old Bank of Japan building, one of a handful of structures to survive the blast, Yoshimichi Ishimaru screened Stephen Spielberg's movie Empire of the Sun. As the child of hibakusha - or atomic bomb victims - he says the ending of the movie haunts him. "The flash that the young hero sees of the Hiroshima bomb symbolises the start of a terrible new world. The level of destruction destroys everyone, regardless of which side we are on. That is what we have to learn."

Survivor Isao Aratani, who was 14 in August 1945, said he came to pay respects to his school friends, more than two-thirds of whom died in the explosion.

He remembers a "thunderous boom" and being thrown to the ground by a blast of "yellow heat". Later he saw enraged locals beating the body of a downed US pilot who had been strapped to a bridge near the centre of the city.

"Some people continued to lash the body even after the soldier was dead."

The ceremony took place as representatives from the US and five other nations remained deadlocked in talks in Beijing to end North Korea's nuclear development programme, which is likely to increase the pressure on regional powers - including Japan - to go nuclear.

The same day, Iran turned down a proposal from the EU aimed at persuading Tehran to give up its nuclear plans.

Michiko Yamaoka, who was badly disfigured in the blast, says she has watched in dismay as the club of nuclear powers, and the threat from nuclear terrorism, has steadily grown. "Where will it end? We come here every year to try to bring an end to this horror. I hope the world is listening."