Sorrow mixed with anger on the 53rd anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing yesterday as thousands gathered to remember the dead and renew their commitment to peace.
Prayers for a nuclear-free world took on a grim new significance in the wake of Indian and Pakistani testing in May, provoking fears of a new arms race. Wisps of incense drifted up from altars in Peace Park, the centre of town and near where an atomic bomb, dropped by the US Air Force as part of a strategy to end the war against Japan, exploded on August 6th, 1945. People clad in black made offerings of flowers and lit candles.
Others brought thousands of folded paper cranes as symbols of peace by which to remember the day the city became a living hell. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of 1945, with thousands dying of related illnesses afterwards.
At Thursday's ceremony another 4,927 names were added to the list of the dead, bringing the total to 207,045.
Despite the example of the fury that nuclear weapons can wreak, Mayor Takashi Hiraoka said, peace still appeared a distant hope, with the situation approaching a crisis.
"With the nuclear tests first by India and then by Pakistan, tension has been raised to new extremes in south-west Asia and the nuclear non-proliferation agreement has been shaken to its core," he told an estimated 50,000 people attending ceremonies at the park.
"Hiroshima is outraged at the two states' nuclear tests, and fearful they might provoke a chain reaction of nuclearisation," he said.
His statements were echoed by the prime minister, Mr Keizo Obuchi."As the only country to have experienced atomic bombing, we will work with new resolve to fulfil our desire of no more Hiroshimas," Mr Obuchi said, adding that the five long-time nuclear powers - the US, Britain, France, China and Russia - must also co-operate to make any proposals work.
He said Japan also hoped to hold an international meeting on disarmament in Tokyo at the end of this month.
The ambassadors of India and Pakistan attended the anniversary ceremonies, but in what city authorities called a disappointing snub, the ambassadors of the longterm nuclear powers turned down invitations to attend, as they generally do.
"I feel that it was a very sad thing that India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests," said 17year-old Akiko Morioka.