On August 6, for the 68th time since the atomic bombing, Hiroshima City held the Peace Memorial Ceremony in Peace Memorial Park.
Around 50,000 people attended the ceremony to pray for the souls of the departed and eternal peace.
The ceremony commenced at 8am.
First Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and two representatives of the bereaved families dedicated two volumes of the Register of the Names of Fallen Atomic Bomb Victims, in which are recorded the names of 5,859 people who have passed away over the past year, to the stone chest in the Cenotaph.
The total number of those registered in the Register has reached 286,818 people, in a total of 104 volumes.
Next was a speech by Noriaki Usui, the president of the Hiroshima Municipal Assembly, and offerings of flowers by each representative.
At 8:15am, the time that he bomb was dropped, the representative of the bereaved families, Siori Sakoda, and the children's representative Rintaro Ito rang the Peace Bell, and a minute of silent prayer was observed by all in attendance.
Mayor Matsui then made the Peace Declaration.
The mayor spoke about not only the physical damage on people caused by the bombing, but also recounted some of the experiences of the survivors who have suffered from groundless rumors resulting from fear of radiation, with his strong statement
"Indiscriminately stealing the lives of innocent people, permanently altering the lives of survivors, and stalking their minds and bodies to the end of their days, the atomic bomb is the ultimate inhumane weapon and an absolute evil".
He called for the policymakers of the world to come to Hiroshima, contact with the spirit of the survivors, and look toward the future of humankind without being caught up in the past.
He urged them to "make the decision to shift to a system of security based on trust and dialogue".
The mayor also spoke of the fact that the inhumanity of nuclear weapons is leading to a steady increase in the number of nations calling for their abolition.
He also strongly appealed to the Japanese government to promptly develop and implement an energy policy that places top priority on safety and people's livelihoods, thinking about those who were affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident that followed.
After the Peace Declaration, the children's representatives Syunji Takeuchi and Yuzu Nakamori read out their Commitment to Peace, where they used the metaphor of a relay to express the passing down of the reality of the atomic bombing and the thoughts of the hibakusha in Hiroshima over the past 68 years from parent to child to grandchild.
They said "It doesn't matter if the methods are different. What is important are the actions of each and every one of us. So, let us create peace together. So that this precious baton may be passed on."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in his address, announced that Japan will host the 2014 gathering of non-nuclear weapons states, the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) in Hiroshima.
The Prime Minister also stated his intention to move quickly on discussions on revisions to the system to certify those with atomic bomb disease, discussions that include experts and representatives of atomic bomb survivors.
The ceremony was attended by representatives of bereaved families from 42 prefectures, the Governor of Hiroshima Hidehiko Yuzaki, as well as Vuk Jeremić, the President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 67th Session, and ambassadors and representatives of 70 nations and the European Union (EU), including the nuclear weapons states of the United States, England, France and Russia.
The Peace Declaration and Commitment to Peace read out at the ceremony may be accessed via the Hiroshima City homepage.
The Peace Declaration may also be accessed from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum website.
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