Hiroshima remembers nuke bombing victims

HIROSHIMA: Japan on Friday marked 76 years since the world’s first atomic bomb attack, with low-key ceremonies and disappointment over a refusal by Olympics organisers to hold a minute’s silence.

Survivors, relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries attended this year’s main event in Hiroshima to pray for those killed or wounded in the bombing and call for world peace.

Virus concerns meant the general public were once again kept away, with the ceremony instead broadcast online.

Participants, many dressed in black and wearing face masks, offered a silent prayer at 8.15 am, when the first nuclear weapon used in wartime was dropped.

An estimated 140,000 people were killed in the bombing of Hiroshima, which was followed three days later by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

On Friday, Hiroshima’s mayor called for leaders to visit the cities, and warned “experience has taught humanity that threatening others for self-defence benefits no one”.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also delivered a speech in the city, but was later forced to apologise for skipping part of the text - reportedly on Japan’s support of international nuclear disarmament - apparently by accident.

International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach made a trip to Hiroshima before the Games began, to mark the start of an Olympic truce that urges a halt to fighting worldwide to allow the safe passage of athletes.

But organisers stopped short of granting a request from bomb survivors and the city for a minute of silent prayer on Friday morning.

In a letter, Bach said the Olympic closing ceremony would include time to honour victims of tragedy throughout history.