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Agence France-Presse

Japan on Thursday marks 75 years since the world’s first atomic bomb attack, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing a scaling back of ceremonies to commemorate the victims.
Survivors, relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries will attend this year’s main event in Hiroshima to pray for the victims and call for world peace.
But the general public will be kept away, with the ceremony instead broadcast online.
Other events, including a gathering to float lanterns along the Motoyasu River, have been cancelled as coronavirus cases spike in parts of Japan.
The annual commemoration is “Hiroshima’s mission of calling on people across the world to work towards peace”, mayor Kazumi Matsui told reporters.
Participants will offer a silent prayer at 8.15am (2315 GMT Wednesday), the exact time the first nuclear weapon deployed in wartime hit the city.

Around 140,000 people were killed, many of them instantly, with others perishing in the weeks and months that followed, suffering radiation sickness, devastating burns and other injuries.
Three days later the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, where 74,000 people were killed.
The historical assessment of the bombings remains subject to some controversy. The United States has never apologised for the bombings, which many in the US see as having ended the war.
Japanese who miraculously survived atomic bomb pushes for disarmament
Japan announced its surrender just days later on August 15, 1945, and some historians argue the bombings ultimately saved lives by avoiding a land invasion that might have been significantly more deadly.
But in Japan, the attacks are widely regarded as war crimes because they targeted civilians indiscriminately and caused unprecedented destruction.
In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, where he offered no apology but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were key stops on Pope Francis’s first trip to Japan last year, where he denounced the “unspeakable horror” of the attacks.
At Thursday’s ceremony, Hiroshima’s mayor and a representative of bereaved families will deliver remarks in front of a cenotaph inscribed with the names of victims.
Volunteers will then live-stream a tour of buildings affected by the bombing, and share testimonies by two atomic bomb survivors as part of efforts to mark the anniversary despite the virus.
The pandemic stalking the globe carries an all-too-familiar fear for some survivors, including 83-year-old Keiko Ogura, who lived through the Hiroshima bombing.
With the outbreak of the virus, “I recall the fear I felt right after the bombing,” she told journalists last month.
“No one can escape.”
The global nature of the threat requires a global solution, she said.
“Whether it’s the coronavirus or nuclear weapons, the way to overcome it is through solidarity among mankind.”
Hiroshima mayor wants Japan to ban nuclear weapons. Abe says no way
The landmark anniversary this year underscores the dwindling number of bomb survivors, known in Japan as “hibakusha”.
Those who remain were mostly infants or young children at the time, and their work to keep the memory of the bombings alive and call for a ban on nuclear weapons has taken on increasing urgency as they age.
Activists and survivors have created archives of everything from the recorded testimony of hibakusha to their poems and drawings.
But many fear interest in the bombings is fading as they recede beyond the horizon of lived experience and into history.
“Just storing a pile of records … is meaningless,” said Kazuhisa Ito, the secretary general of the Hibakusha Assembly of Memory Heritage, an NGO that compiles records and documents from survivors.
“What we want is to engage young people with this issue and exchange views with them, globally,” he told Agence France-Presse.



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Japan

Japan marks 75th anniversary of WWII Hiroshima atomic bomb attack

People pray in Hiroshima on August 5, 2020, a day before the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombing on the Japanese city during World War II. Photo: Kyodo

epa08586455 A lantern with a peace dove on it is illuminated on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing at the Volkspark Friedrichshain park in Berlin, Germany, 05 August 2020. On 06 August 2020, Japan will mark the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. In 1945, the United States dropped two nuclear bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 06 and 09 August respectively, killing more than 200,000 people. This year's annual commemoration events were either canceled or scaled-down amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. EPA-EFE/CLEMENS BILAN

epa08586458 A man strikes the world peace bell on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing at the Volkspark Friedrichshain park in Berlin, Germany, 05 August 2020. On 06 August 2020, Japan will mark the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. In 1945, the United States dropped two nuclear bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 06 and 09 August respectively, killing more than 200,000 people. This year's annual commemoration events were either canceled or scaled-down amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. EPA-EFE/CLEMENS BILAN

Japanese man who miraculously survived Nagasaki atomic bomb fights on for disarmament

Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor Terumi Tanaka. Photo: Reuters

Terumi Tanaka, a Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor, takes part in a rally to call on the government to support atomic bomb survivors in Tokyo, Japan April 17, 1978, in this handout photo released by Hihon Hidankyo, a country-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers, and obtained by Reuters on July 30, 2020. Nihon Hidankyo/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT.

Terumi Tanaka, a Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor and co-chairperson of Nihon Hidankyo, a country-wide organisation of atomic and hydrogen bomb sufferers, shows a photo of himself with his schoolmates from Nagasaki Junior High School taken in March 1948, during an interview with Reuters at the Nihon Hidankyo office in Tokyo, Japan July 30, 2020. Picture taken July 30, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Hiroshima mayor wants Japan to ban nuclear weapons. Shinzo Abe says no way

People pray for atomic bomb victims in front of the cenotaph for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. Photo: Reuters

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui delivers a speech at a ceremony marking the 74th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the Peace Memorial Park in the western Japan city on Aug. 6, 2019. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

People pray in front of the cenotaph for A-bomb victims at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, on Aug. 6, 2019, as the western Japan city marked the 74th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The Atomic Bomb Dome is seen in front of the venue holding a ceremony to mark the 74th anniversary of the atomic bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, August 6, 2019, on the 74th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. JAPAN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN JAPAN.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at a press conference in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 2019, after attending a ceremony marking the 74th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

epa07758479 Residents offer prayers for victims of the 06 August 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, 06 August 2019. The citizens of Hiroshima marked the 74th anniversary of the atomic bombing. EPA-EFE/JIJI PRESS JAPAN OUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/ NO ARCHIVES

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Survivors and relatives will attend main event the city, but the public will be kept away due to the threat of coronavirus
Hiroshima’s mayor and a representative of bereaved families will deliver remarks in front of a cenotaph inscribed with the names of victims on Thursday



Survivors and relatives will attend main event the city, but the public will be kept away due to the threat of coronavirus.


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Legacy of war in Asia

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