By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press
The second and last city ever attacked by an atomic bomb marked the
60th anniversary of its devastation Tuesday with a Catholic Mass, a moment of silence and an impassioned plea for a global ban on nuclear arms.About 6,000 people, including hundreds of aging bomb survivors, crowded into Nagasaki's Peace Memorial Park, just a few hundred yards from the center of the blast, for a solemn remembrance and moment of silence.
Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh then had some angry words for the leaders of the nuclear powers, and especially the United States.
"We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of the horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," he said. "Yet, is your security enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons, of carrying out repeated sub-critical nuclear tests, and of pursuing the development of new 'mini' nuclear weapons?"
Itoh also urged Japan to get out from under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella." About 50,000 U.S. troops are deployed throughout Japan under a post-World War II mutual security pact.
Soon after, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a staunch supporter of the U.S. presence, placed a wreath before the monument to the dead. He vowed to advocate a nuclear ban but kept his comments brief.
"This is an occasion to remember the victims and pray for world peace," he said.
Nagasaki's remembrances began just after sunrise yesterday (Japanese time) with a special Mass at Urakami Cathedral. Hundreds of worshippers crowded into the church, which at the time of the bombing was the largest in Asia with 12,000 parishioners -- 8,500 of whom are believed to have been killed.
Tuesday's memorial follows a much bigger one last week in Hiroshima, where some 55,000 people swarmed into the city's peace park.
Three days after the Enola Gay dropped the "Little Boy" bomb on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 in the world's first atomic bomb attack, Bock's Car took off to deliver the second A-bomb -- nicknamed "Fat Man" -- to the city of Kokura.
Kokura was hidden under a thick cover of smoke. The plane circled three times, then changed course for Nagasaki, where it also encountered thick clouds.
With dwindling fuel, the pilot nearly turned around but then found a break in the clouds.
Estimates of the death toll range from 60,000 to 80,000. Nagasaki officials on Tuesday used 74,000 as the death figure.
Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II.
"Together with some 260,000 A-bomb survivors ... I swear in the presence of the souls of the victims of the atomic bombing to continue to tirelessly demand that Nagasaki be the last A-bomb site," said Fumie Sakamoto, who represented survivors at Tuesday's memorial.
Sakamoto, 74, was a junior high school student when Nagasaki was bombed. The blast destroyed her home and threw her 10 yards into the air. She landed in her garden.
"As far as I could see, everything had been reduced to rubble," she said.
Other than the many small monuments around town, few signs of the devastation remain.
A scenic port city with a population of about 420,000, Nagasaki today is a popular tourist destination known for its Chinatown, one of the largest in Japan, and its European flair.
Nagasaki has a long history of trade with the Dutch, and for about 200 years, until Japan opened its doors to the outside world in 1859, it was the only Japanese city open to foreign trade.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
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