Remembering Hiroshima 80 years on

There were remembrance services on 6th August in Hiroshima, Japan, to observe the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb to be dropped in combat. Having left the city completely devastated, the US military were to repeat the operation in Nagasaki three days later, resulting in a combined death toll of 150,000 people.

With little choice but to surrender, Japan's defeat on 15th August 1945 brought about the end of the Second World War. Despite some standing firm in their belief that nuclear arms hastened the arrival of peace, preventing further, greater loss of life, others condemn their use as unnecessary, viewing it as a war crime under the conventions of war.

Subsequently, a further 100,000 victims succumbed to illnesses caused by exposure to radiation from the blasts. Some are still living with the burden of painful aftereffects, and the bombs have left a legacy of fear of nuclear war.

As the official commemorations drew to a close, people assembled by the Motoyasu River, where lanterns were floated on the water. Each bore a prayer for the dead and a plea for the living. Hawaiian musician, Jasmine Smith was there.

Jasmine Smith: "My wish would kind of just be, you know, we are the younger generation and we are the ones who are gonna be taking care of this world as it goes on. So my hope is that we as a generation can kind of fix everything that's come before us and restore that peace that everyone is gathering today for."

Hiroshima's Mayor, Kazumi Matsui, was determined to use the opportunity to call upon the world superpowers to discontinue nuclear deterrence and urged the younger generations to recognise what he termed the "inhumane consequences" of nuclear arms going forward. Polish student Jakub Dziadkiewicz is in agreement with this opinion.

Jakub Dziadkiewicz: "Yes it is - that's a powerful message, what's been happening here eighty years ago. And millions of deaths should remind us that there shouldn't be war. And I just wish for peace, not only for these places, but everywhere else." View Less