u.s. attends hiroshima ceremony

8/9/2019 U.S. Attends Hiroshima Ceremony

1/6

http://www.nytimes.com| Maurijones J. de Albuquerque

1

U.S. Attends Hiroshima Ceremony

Kyodo, via Reuters

People prayed in front of the cenotaph for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing, at Peace Memorial

Park in Hiroshima.

ByMARTIN FACKLER

Published: August 6, 2010

HIROSHIMA, Japan The U.S. ambassador participated for the first time on Friday in an

annual ceremony to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing here in World War Two,

raising hopes that President Barack Obama may soon follow.

With the mournful gonging of a Buddhist temple bell and the release of doves, a crowd of

55,000 solemnly marked the moment 65 years ago when the worlds first atomic attack

incinerated this city under a towering mushroom cloud.

During the ceremony, Hiroshimas mayor welcomed the ambassador, John Roos, and

praised President Obama as one of the world leaders who wielded their powerful influence

to rid the world ofnuclear weapons.

During the solemn ceremony at the citys peace park within sight of the iconic Atomic Bomb

Dome, other speakers also praised President Obamas call last year in Prague for a

denuclearized world.


2/6


2

We greet this August sixth with re-energized determination that no one else should ever

have to suffer such horror, said the mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba. Clearly, the urgency of

nuclear weapons abolition is permeating our global conscience.

Mr. Roos did not speak at the ceremony, which included a minute of silence at 8:15, themoment the bomb detonated on a Sunday morning in 1945, killing more than 140,000

residents. In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy, Mr. Roos said, we must continue to

work together to realize a world without nuclear weapons. While no one mentioned it

during the ceremony, city officials have said they hoped Mr. Rooss attendance would serve

as a step toward a future visit by President Obama to Hiroshima, which along with Nagasaki

has become a symbol of the horrors of nuclear war.

Mr. Akiba also praised the ambassadors of Britain and France and also the United Nations

secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, all of whom also attended the ceremony for first time.

It is time to move from Ground Zero to Global Zero, Mr. Ban said in a speech, referring to

the elimination of nuclear weapons. For many of you, that day endures as vivid as the white

light that seared the sky, as dark as the black rain that followed.


3/6


3

Hiroshima survivors exhibition marks 65th

anniversary of first atomic bombExhibition's harrowing portraits act as grim reminder of the continuing

legacy of the events of 6 August 1945

Maev Kennedy

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 August 2010 17.34 BST

Article history

Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Morita with Hideo Ohya, the man who painted her portrait and those of

others. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

At 8.15am on 6 August 1945 the lives of Setsuko Morita, her husband, Noboru, and those of

everyone they knew changed forever. They were school pupils in Hiroshima, both freed from

study to work in the fields on Japan's wartime food production, at the moment the Enola Gay

dropped the atomic bomb on their city.

Their portraits are among those of65 survivors in a London exhibition opening tomorrow,

including those of a woman and her baby who are third and fourth-generation Hibakusha

literally bomb-affected people and a man who was just a foetus in his mother's womb on

August 6 1945 and who is too embarrassed to use his survivor's card. It is the first time the

portraits have been seen outside Japan.

The Moritas, explained Setsuko, are quiet people who married when they were 18 but "werenever fortunate enough to have the blessing of children" almost certainly as a result of injuries

she suffered that day. They have come to London driven by the same urge which created the

exhibition to bear witness to what happened so that it will never happen again.


4/6


4

Setsuko Morita managed to stagger home after the bombing with 25% burns, through roads

where every building was gone, crowded with people bearing terrible injuries, pleading for

water. Her parents treated her for a week with three buckets of sterilised water and baby powder

until they finally got her to a doctor. She overheard a conversation in which her mother said it

would be better if she died, while her father argued that her life might still be worth living.

Noboru, meanwhile, spent the next three months working in his school, just beside his family

home, which became a hospital, morgue, crematorium and cemetery. He watched many people

die in what had been his classroom, begging for water. He spent most of every day searching for

wells and springs because the mains had been destroyed and the river was choked with wreckage

and bodies.

The portraits are by Professor Hideo Ohya, a renowned artist in Japan, and by colleagues and

postgraduate students at Hiroshima city university. A postwar baby, it was only when he moved

from Tokyo to head the art faculty that he realised how limited his understanding of the fate of

the city had been. As he began to meet survivors he realised that the youngest were approaching

old age and there would soon be no first-hand witnesses. Gradually members of the universitystaff came forward, volunteering to have their own portraits included. Many in the city have

hidden their status as a badge of shame that still attracts fear of contamination.

The exhibition has come to London through Paul Stafford of Kingston university, who found

them almost unbearably moving even though none show obvious disfigurement. He saw the

portraits as a way of fostering links between the two institutions.

The Brunei gallery at the School of Oriental and African Studies in Russell Square, which has a

Japanese garden on the roof where a private ceremony will be held to mark the exact time of the

atomic bomb explosion, proved the perfect space for the exhibition.

Like many of those portrayed, Noboru Morita looks remarkably calm and cheerful but that is

one of the side effects he bears. He has been on anti-depressants for 20 years to calm his growing

dread of cancers and other long-term effects suffered by many of the survivors. He felt angry for

years, baffled and even resentful of his own survival, never speaking of them but deeply affected

by the scenes he witnessed.

His wife, in her portrait as in life, looks tranquil and immaculate. Only when she pushes back her

sleeves do the streaks of white scars along the outside of one arm and the inside of the other

show.

The Light - portraits of the Hibakusha, Brunei Gallery, London, free, until 8 October


5/6


5

Portrait profiles

Mother and child portrait at the Hibakusha exhibition. Photograph: Rikki Hodder for the Guardian

A mother holding her baby symbolises the generations affected by the Hiroshimo bombing. Bornin 2007 and aged just one in this portrait, the boy is a third-generation atomic bomb survivor on

his father's side and a fourth-generation survivor on his mother's.

"Children are the lights that connect us to the future, they are hope and the joy of being alive. I

hope peace will last, for the sake of our children," his mother says. His grandmother and great-

grandparents are also part of the project.

Noboru and Setsuko Morita with their portraits. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Painted by Hideo Ohya, professor of art at Hiroshimo city university and creator of the project,

Setsuko Morita was 13 at the time of the bombing. On returning home her parents tended to her

burns with rationed ointment. She married fellow survivor, Noboru, at the age of 18 and believes

strongly in speaking about her experiences. She has re-counted them at schools in Japan andNew York.

Walking with his mother towards the family field, Noboru Morita was 13 when the atomic bomb

exploded. Noboru helped to care for the injured at the refuge set up at the school behind his half-

demolished home.

He moved away after marrying Setsuko but returned to the city at the age of 55. Keeping his

survivor status a secret for many years he has, through the encouragement of his wife, gradually

become able to speak about his experiences.

Ami Sedghi


6/6


6

Get short, timely messages from Maurijones.Get short, timely messages from Maurijones.Get short, timely messages from Maurijones.Get short, timely messages from Maurijones.

Twitter is a rich source of instantly updated information. It's easy to stay

updated on an incredibly wide variety of topics.Join todayand follow

@maurijones.

u.s. attends hiroshima ceremony

Documents