Hiroshima, Japan – The mayor of Hiroshima called Sunday for the elimination of nuclear weapons as he marked the 61st anniversary of the world’s first atomic-bomb attack.
Expressing concerns over the global proliferation of nuclear weapons, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba urged the government of Japan – the only nation to suffer atomic-bomb attacks – to take a leading role in the effort to eliminate nuclear arsenals.
“Sixty-one years have passed since radiation, heat rays and an atomic blast created hell on earth,” Akiba said at Hiroshima Peace Park, near the bomb’s epicenter. “But the number of nations enamored of evil and enslaved by nuclear arms has increased. The only role nuclear weapons have is to be demolished.”
A bell rang at 8:15 a.m., marking the time when the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. It was the first atomic bomb ever used in war.
About 45,000 survivors, residents, visitors and officials from around the world prayed for the victims by observing a minute of silence in Hiroshima, 430 miles southwest of Tokyo.
An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the bombing. Three days later, another U.S. warplane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people.
This year’s anniversary comes amid concerns over North Korea’s recent missile tests and Iran’s suspect nuclear program.
Iran vowed Sunday to expand its uranium enrichment, defying a U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend its nuclear activities by the end of the month.
