Hiroshima Peace Day

Every year on August the 6th, the City of Hiroshima holds the Peace Memorial Ceremony. Its aim is to remember the 140,000 people who died after the atomic bomb was dropped. The bombing was the first ever use of a nuclear weapon. It also aims to bring about world peace and ban nuclear weapons. The ceremony is attended by many people who lost family members in the bombing. The Mayor of Hiroshima reads a special Peace Declaration. His message is sent to every country in the world to tell leaders to abolish nuclear weapons. At exactly 8:15 a.m. the Peace Bell is rung. This is the time the atomic bomb was dropped. People all over the city stood in silence for one minute.

There was a little girl called Sadako Sasaki who survived the bombing. She was just two years old. The radiation from the bomb gave her leukemia when she was ten. Sadako believed in an old Japanese story that if you made 1,000 paper cranes, you would be granted a wish. She decided to fold 1,000 cranes and wish for good health. She died before she completed making the cranes and her school friends finished making them for her. She said: "I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world." Each year, thousands of paper cranes from all over the world hang from the statue of Sadako in Hiroshima’s Peace Park. The cranes and her message are a good way to remember we must never give up on peace.