The Japanese city falls quiet as it remembers the moment 70 years ago that the Enola Gay dropped a bomb that obliterated tens of thousands of lives
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Thursday’s ceremony was attended by 40,000 people, including representatives of more than 100 countries.
Among them was the US ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, and the US under-secretary for arms control, Rose Gottemoeller, the most senior US official sent from Washington to the annual memorial.
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Abe said Japan would submit a new resolution to the UN general assembly this autumn calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons. He would “encourage world leaders to get firsthand accounts of the tragic reality of atomic bombings” during next year’s G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Hiroshima.
As the Hiroshima service was taking place, the 10 members of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) and five of their large neighbours endorsed the nuclear deal negotiated last month between Iran and six world powers, including the US.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the ASEAN countries, along with Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, said the deal would “ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme”, which many believe has been used as a cover for atomic weapons development. Iran denies that charge.
ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Also signing the statement were China, Russia and the US, which were involved in negotiating the agreement with Iran.
Read more at Hiroshima remembers atomic bomb: ‘abolish the evil of nuclear weapons’
