TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Nakasaki Commemorates Sixtieth Anniversary of Atomic Bomb Attack

Nakasaki Commemorates Sixtieth Anniversary of Atomic Bomb Attack

ap@telecom-digest.org> ((ap@telecom-digest.org)
Tue, 9 Aug 2005 09:22:44 -0500

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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