Home  |  Web Resources  |  Free Advertising

Change Your Life!

'Hiroshima Day': The agony and legacy lives on

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

	With a landmark of Peace Dome in the background, 1,500 doves fly over the Cenotahp of the Peace Park at the climax of a memorial service to mark the 55th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing over Hiroshima, western Japan, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2000. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) AP / UNB

August 7, 2000 

HIROSHIMA (AP) - In a solemn annual rite, Japan paused Sunday to recall the day 55 years ago when the dropping of a U.S. atomic bomb "created a hell on earth."

Broken only by the steady chirping of cicadas and the tolling of a bell, 60 seconds of silent prayer commenced at 8:15 a.m. - the exact moment the bomb exploded above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

Many in attendance on the grounds of Peace Memorial Park bowed their heads, while some held Buddhist prayer beads. The city of Hiroshima estimated that 50,000 people attended the event, held amid hot, muggy weather. Police put the number at 30,000.

"It has been precisely 55 years since one single atomic bomb created a hell on earth," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in delivering the city's annual peace declaration.

He called for Hiroshima to make further efforts to see an end to atomic weapons in the 21st century. "Unfortunately, our most fervent hope, to see nuclear weapons abolished by the end of this century, has not been realized."

About 140,000 people died in the attack. Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 70,000 people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.

Scientists estimate the yield of the bomb that decimated Hiroshima was about 12,000 kilotons. A kiloton is the equivalent of 1,000 pounds of high explosives.

Following the declaration, 1,500 doves symbolizing peace were released into the sky at the ceremony, which is televised nationally every year. Three hundred children sang a song of peace.

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who attended the event for the first time since assuming his post in April, expressed his "deepest sympathy" for those who were killed.

Elderly people offer prayers in front of the Cenotaph for the soul of atomic bomb victims before the start of a memorial service to mark the 55th anniversary of the bombing at Peace Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2000. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi) AP / UNB

"My heart also goes out to the people who to this day continue to suffer from the aftereffects of their exposure to radiation," he said.

On Saturday, the city announced that the names of 5,021 people who were in Hiroshima on the day of the bombing and who have died since last year's anniversary were added to a monument dedicated to the victims.

The number of names on the cenotaph now stands at 217,137.

Last year, Associated Press media subscribers voted the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the top news story of the 20th century.

Hiroshima is about 690 kilometers (430 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

After the ceremony was over, a man jumped toward Mori's car, said Takeshi Kamizori of the Hiroshima prefectural (state) police. Mori was unhurt.

Masashi Watanabe, another police spokesman, said the man was in his twenties, but it wasn't known yet if he had been apprehended or arrested or what his motive was.