50,000 Gather in Hiroshima to Remember 1st Atomic Attack

With the clang of a bell and the rush of 1,000 doves overhead, Hiroshima came to a standstill Sunday for a moment of silence to recall the world’s first nuclear attack 44 years ago.

About 50,000 people gathered in Peace Memorial Park to mark the anniversary of the city’s destruction by a U.S. atomic bomb. Prime Minister Sosuke Uno said the memorial should “sound an alarm” for the future, and he said Japan should carry out more aggressive diplomacy to work for peace.

At 8:15 a.m., the precise time when the bomb exploded in a flash of white light on Aug. 6, 1945, Hiroshima residents, Japanese government officials and foreign guests bowed their heads in silent prayer while this city of 1 million came to a halt.

People on stopped buses and streetcars prayed, as did patients in their hospital beds.

About 140,000 people died in the blast, firestorm and radiation from the attack on this western Japanese city.

Three days after the Hiroshima attack, the United States dropped a second atom bomb on the coastal city of Nagasaki, killing 70,000 people. Japan surrendered unconditionally Aug. 15, 1945, ending the war.

A group of mayors at an international peace conference, including Anne Rudin of Sacramento, Calif., placed a wreath of yellow chrysanthemums beside a granite tomb dedicated to the bomb victims. Chrysanthemums are a traditional mourning flower.

“The people of Hiroshima have turned this into a positive thing because they have educated the world about the horror of nuclear war,” Rudin said after the ceremony.