With the nuclear “Doomsday Clock” at midnight due to sabre-rattling between the US and Russia, Japan commemorated 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed.
At 8:15 a.m. (2315 GMT), the time US plane Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945, a quiet prayer was conducted.
Flowers were set at the memorial cenotaph on a hot morning by hundreds of black-clad officials, students, and survivors. The ruins of a domed edifice in the background served as a sobering reminder of the atrocities that took place.
Kazumi Matsui, the mayor of Hiroshima, issued a warning about “an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world” in a speech.
