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The Enola
Gay aircraft crew dropped “Little Boy” A uranium gun-type atomic bomb over the
Japanese City of Hiroshima with a sizeable military installation on August 6, 1945
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Over 50,000 people gathered in Hiroshima this morning to mark
the anniversary of the atomic bombing that obliterated the city near the end of
the second world war. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
led expressions of condolences to the roughly140,000 victims of the attack, and
called for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. Thousands of
protestors chanted anti-war slogans a short distance from the ceremony in
Hiroshima’s memorial park. Scattered shouts of “no more war” could be heard at
the end of Abe’s speech.
The Irish Times report
continues:
Many survivors of the
bombing are upset at Abe’s attempts to loosen the shackles of Japan’s pacifist
constitution, which was written in 1946 during the American occupation of the
country.
The “Little Boy” uranium
bomb that detonated over Hiroshima killed an estimated 70,000 on August 6th,
1945. Tens of thousands more died in the subsequent months and years from burns
and radiation-related illnesses. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
three days later are still the only instances of nuclear weapons used in
warfare.
Hiroshima’s mayor Kazumi
Matsui called the atomic bombs an “absolute evil.”
“Our world still bristles
with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons and policymakers in the nuclear armed
states remain trapped in provincial thinking,” he said in his speech. “On the
70th anniversary, now is the time to start taking action.”
Among the roughly 50,000
people listening to Matsui in the crowd was US Ambassador to Japan Caroline
Kennedy and America’s under secretary of state for arms control and
international security, Rose Gottemoeller. America still maintains the world’s
largest, most advanced nuclear arsenal.
Japan’s nuclear-armed
neighbours, China and North Korea, did not send delegates to the ceremony,
which was attended by representatives from a record 100 countries and
territories, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Abe laid a wreath at the
ceremony and said as the only victim of a nuclear attack, it is Japan’s
“responsibility and duty” to achieve a world without the weapons. “Seventy
years on I want to reemphasize the necessity of world peace.”
But some listeners
expressed disappointment in his speech. “What he says is right but what he is
actually doing is different,” said Satsuki Nakasei (14), a high school student.
“He is moving Japan away from pacifism.”
Japan’s parliament is
deliberating a clutch of security bills that would allow the country’s armed
forces to defend allies – principally America – if under attack. Abe says the
bills are part of a strategy of what he calls “proactive pacifism.”
Defence Minister Gen
Nakatani sparked controversy on the eve of the ceremony when he admitted that
the legislation would allow Japan “theoretically” to transport nuclear weapons
for an ally, though he added that the country’s non-nuclear principles ruled
that out.
Opposition politicians
called the comment an insult to survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nakatani
later withdrew the remark and apologized.
The use of atomic weapons
on Japan still bitterly divides opinion. American leaders continue to insist
that the bombs helped shorten the war and save lives. Polls show most Americans
support that view. But survivors and many historians say the war could have been
ended without the killing of over 200,000, including tens of thousands of
children.
Local
museums stress that the crew of the Enola Gay, which dropped the bomb about
500m over the centre of the city, were not aiming for military or industrial
facilities but its civilian population.
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