By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer
Hiroshima marked the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb attack Saturday with prayers and water for the dead and a call by the mayor for nuclear powers to abandon their arsenals and stop "jeopardizing human survival."
At 8:15 a.m., (a day ago, by Japanese time), the instant of the blast, the city's trolleys stopped and more than 55,000 people at Peace Memorial Park observed a moment of silence that was broken only by the ringing of a bronze bell.
A flock of doves was released into the sky. Then wreaths and ladles of water -- symbolizing the suffering of those who died in the atomic inferno -- were offered at a simple, arch-shaped stone monument at the center of the park.
Outside the nearby A-Bomb Dome, one of the few buildings left standing after the blast, peace activists held a "die-in" -- falling to the ground to dramatize the toll from the United States bombing that turned life to death for more than 140,000 and forever changed the face of war.
Thousands of paper lanterns symbolizing the souls of the dead were floated on a river next to the park, concluding a day of rememberance.
Fumie Yoshida was just 16 when Hiroshima was bombed. She survived but lost her father, brother and sister. On Saturday, she chose not to attend the formal memorial, but paid her respects privately with a small group of friends in the peace park.
"My father's remains have never been found," she said. "Those of us who went through this all know that we must never repeat this tragedy. But I think many Japanese today are forgetting."
In a "Peace Declaration," Hiroshima's outspoken Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba vowed to never allow a repeat of the tragedy and gave an impassioned plea for the abolition of nuclear weapons, saying the United States, is "jeopardizing human survival."
"Many people around the world have succumbed to the feeling that there is nothing we can do," he said. "Within the United Nations, the United States uses its veto power to override the global majority and pursue its selfish objectives."
In a more subdued speech, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi offered condolences for the dead.
"I offer deep prayers from my heart to those who were killed," he said, vowing that Japan would be a leader in the international movement against nuclear proliferation.
Though Hiroshima has risen from the rubble to become a thriving city of 3 million, most of whom were born after the war, the anniversary underscores its ongoing tragedy.
Officials estimate that about 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload over the city, which then had a population of about 350,000.
Three days later, another U.S. bomber, Bock's Car, dropped a plutonium bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II.
Including those initially listed as missing or who died afterward from a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, including cancers, Hiroshima officials now put the total number of dead in this city alone at 242,437.
This year, 5,373 more names were added to the list.
In central London, more than 200 anti-nuclear activists and others gathered at Tavistock Square, where a cherry tree was planted in 1967 in memory of the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.
Jeremy Corbyn, a lawmaker in the governing Labour Party and vocal anti-war campaigner, urged people to remember the "unique horror" of what the United States did to Hiroshima in 1945.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
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Considering Bush's strong association with the right-wing fundamentalist Christian movement in this country -- people who feel from their reading of scripture that the end is near anyway -- I really wonder if he _does_ care ... if nothing else, it would most assuredly allow _his_ congresspersons to declare a state of emergency and retain him in office for the duration of the first real war on American soil. Under the present constitutional constraints, he is ineligible for another term in office, but just as in New York City a few days after 9-11-01 there were suggestions seriously considered to put off installing the new mayor and retaining the old mayor 'due to the crisis'. I am sure the same ideas would be floated around as Bush's term would otherwise draw to a close. Do the Atomic Scientists still keep setting that clock periodically on its journey to midnight? What is that clock setting now? PAT]