Indian Ambassador Honors Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Victims
Tokyo — India’s Ambassador to Japan, Nagma Mallick, paid tribute to the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombing Thursday by laying flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
Her visit coincided with the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima during the final days of World War II.
Mallick attended a reception for members of the diplomatic corps and met Hiroshima Governor Mika Yokota and Mayor Kazumi Matsui before participating in the annual Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony.
The ambassador also joined Matsui, Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly Chairman Takashi Nakamoto and Hiroshima Japan-India Association President Kazuhisa Matsumoto in laying a wreath at a statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
In a social media post, the Indian Embassy thanked members of the Indian community in Japan who attended the ceremony and others who support ties between India and Japan.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped a uranium-based atomic bomb on Hiroshima. An estimated 140,000 people had died from the blast and its effects by the end of that year.
During Thursday’s memorial ceremony, Hiroshima renewed its call for the abolition of nuclear weapons and warned against their use as instruments of intimidation.
“Downplaying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and accepting the use of force to pursue one’s own prosperity risk cycles of violent retaliation that could ultimately result in another Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” Matsui said in the city’s annual Peace Declaration.
A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., the time the bomb detonated over Hiroshima in 1945.
About 50,000 people attended the ceremony at Peace Memorial Park, including representatives from 121 countries and the European Union. (Source: IANS)
