- After laying flowers at exactly 8:15 — the time when the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima — a minute of silence is declared.
TOKYO (Agencies) – A memorial ceremony for nuclear bombing victims began in the Peace Park in Hiroshima, the city that was the first in the world to experience the horror of the use of nuclear weapons, on the 79th anniversary of the tragedy.
The ceremony is traditionally broadcast live on the city hall website as well as on major TV channels and on the Internet. It begins at 8:00 (23:00 GMT on Monday) with the laying of lists of those killed in the atomic bombing and its consequences at the monument. This year, another 5,079 names were added to the list of 344,000.
The Peace Park, where the ceremony is held annually, is located in the epicenter of the bombing on August 6, 1945 where the force of the bomb vaporized the bodies of its victims. In the park there is a mass grave in the form of a hill with a Buddhist pagoda on top, where the ashes of 70,000 unidentified victims of the tragedy rest. On the monument in the Peace Park, next to which the funeral ceremony is taking place, it is written: “Sleep peacefully, this mistake will not be repeated again.”
The ceremony is attended by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, members of the government, parliamentarians, and representatives of diplomatic missions of more than 109 countries. This year, for the third time, representatives of the diplomatic missions of Russia and Belarus were not invited to the ceremony. Meanwhile representatives of Palestine and Israel received an invitation.