Tokyo, March 10 (IANS) A memorial service was held on Monday at a park facility in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, marking the 80th anniversary of a massive air raid by the United States during the Second World War.
Japan’s Crown Prince Fumihito and Princess Kiko also attended the memorial service held at a place that houses the remains of many of the victims of the tragic event.
About 160 people, including Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko and bereaved family members, offered incense and prayed for the repose of the victims, Japan’s Kyodo News reported.
“We must keep the memories and lessons of this horrific war in our hearts and pass them on to future generations,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a message.
In the early hours of the morning on March 10, 1945, US B-29 bombers dropped incendiary bombs on parts of Tokyo, particularly on densely populated areas, burning down an estimated 270,000 residential buildings overnight.
The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan towards the end of World War II – one called “Little Boy” on Hiroshima on 6th August 1945 and another called “Fat Man” on Nagasaki on three days later. Together, these two bombs killed some 220,000 Japanese citizens outright, with over 200,000 more dying subsequently from lethal radiation overdoses, according to a United Nations report.
As the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, Japan has been leading the international discussion on disarmament and non-proliferation, promoting real change by calling on all nuclear weapon states to take measures toward nuclear disarmament while increasing transparency in military armaments.
Japan is also working to strengthen and improve the efficiency of safeguards by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is at the center of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. At the same time, Japan actively participates in and contributes to the international export controls regimes, which are the frameworks for cooperation in export controls, and the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which is an initiative for preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Japanese Foreign Ministry stated.
“Nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist,” Japanese lawmaker Shinji Morimoto said earlier this month while addressing the meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
He further stressed at a panel discussion noting that there are people still suffering from the influence of radiation even nearly 80 years after the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
–IANS
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