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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> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have to wonder if it has occurred to
> Mr. Bush that what is good for the goose is often times good for the
> gander as well. How would _he_ (or Mr. Blair for example) feel if the
> Iraqi government decided "in order to end further suffering or loss
> of innocent lives in this war with the United States, _we_ have
> elected to drop the big one on their country." In other words, Harry
> Truman's line, all over again, one big blast to end the agony of
> war, but this time fingers pointed at us as the agressors ... and the
> Iraqi government did, just this past week, invite the United States to
> withdraw totally from Iraq and let all of us go back to living at
> peace. We know that Mr. Bush refused that offer totally. We also know
> that China has threatened us in recent days regards its ongoing spat
> with Taiwan, stating that if Bush insisted on remaining involved in
> that situation, they (the Chinese) 'would not hesitate' to use strong
> medicine on us. And the North Koreans, I am sure, would get involved
> also as circumstances permitted. I have to wonder if Mr. Bush even
> realizes how close he is coming toward getting a taste of his own
> medicine or if he even cares, in his deluded state of grandeur.
> 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]
The clock is now set at 7 minutes to Midnight.
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Gene