By Himanshu Guru: Japan marks the 67th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima in an annual ceremony with a gathering of around 50 thousand people today at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the epicenter of the big blast of 1945, in Japan.
Clifton Truman Daniel, a grandson of the then US President Harry Truman, who ordered the bombing, also attended the ceremony.
The nuclear bombing of 1945 had destroyed almost whole of the city of Hiroshima and killed as many as 140,000 people. Also, three days after, a second atomic bombing on Aug. 9 that year in Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more and prompted Japan to surrender to the World War II Allies.
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One-minute silence was kept after a bell struck at 08:15 local time, the exact time when Enola Gay, the US bomber dropped the deadly bomb over the western Japanese city in 1945.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan must pass the experience on to future generations so that the lessons of Hiroshima are not forgotten on the eve of the ceremony.
The ceremony was also attended by ageing survivors of the bombing and their relatives. The United States was represented by Ambassador John Roos.
The annual ceremony of this year took place in the midst of growing public frustration with the decision to restart nuclear plants in the country, following the nuclear accident at a power plant in Fukushima last year.