The Hiroshima bombing was commemorated 70 years after the atomic bomb blasted its way into Japan's history. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other foreign representatives were present at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. They had a brief moment of silence at exactly 8:15 a.m. local time when the world's first atomic attack immediately killed 70,000 people, ABC News Reported.
"Today Hiroshima has been revived and has become a city of culture and prosperity," Abe said during his speech. "Seventy years on I want to reemphasise the necessity of world peace," he added, according to BBC.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said during the event, "To coexist we must abolish the... ultimate inhumanity that is nuclear weapons. Now is the time to start taking action." This is consistent with his statement two years ago, for the abolition of nuclear weapons, as HNGN covered.
The event was culminated by releasing thousands of paper lanterns into the Motoyasu River. These lanterns signify the peaceful journey of those who perished during the Hiroshima bombing.
On Aug. 6, 1945, Enola Gay, a U.S. B-29 bomber, carried and dropped the bomb that exploded 600m above Hiroshima. Three days later, another atomic bomb hit Nagasaki, a port city, which instantly killed 70,000 people.
A medical researcher who worked hand in hand with the U.S. Atomic Bomb Medical Team in Nagasaki, Dr. James Yamazaki, had seen the horrifying effects of radiation on the victims. He carried out a research that lasted from 1949 to 1961 to focus on pregnant women at the time the bombs were dropped, NBC News reported.
"The children of the women who were pregnant, their children manifested the severe effect on the fetus with development of a small head size and mental retardation," Yamasaki said.
"The impact of radiation on the human body - the long-term effect and principal effect - is the development of cancer. The enormous impact on human population is unacceptable."
"All humans should make every effort that this should never be used again," he emphasized. "I feel every student before they finish middle school should be aware of the enormous impact of the atomic bomb so that it never be used again."
