HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - The mayor of Hiroshima marked the anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing with a sharp rebuke for what critics charge is President Bush's unilateral diplomacy -- and an invitation to Bush to visit the city destroyed in a nuclear inferno 57 years ago.

The anniversary comes days after a reminder that Japan -- which has made much of its status as the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack -- was researching an atomic bomb during World War II, and just months after a top politician hinted Tokyo might someday abandon its decades-old ban on nuclear weapons.

The Peace Bell tolled at 8:15 a.m. -- the precise moment the Enola Gay B-29 warplane dropped the bomb on August 6, 1945 -- as the crowd stood and bowed their heads for a minute of silence in the still summer heat.

The United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the southern city of Nagasaki on August 9.

Six days later, Japan surrendered.

[red]Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba lamented the world's growing tendency to forget the horrors of the atomic bomb[/red] and warned his audience that the dangers of nuclear war were rising.

"For the victims of the atomic bomb...once again, a hot and bitter summer has returned," Akiba said. "With the return of the heat, the memories of that misery also return.

"What is even more bitter is that those memories are fading from the world," he said. He added that the possibility of history's repeating itself had grown since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Akiba invited Bush to Hiroshima "to confirm with his own eyes what nuclear weapons can do to human beings" and lashed out at Washington's go-it-alone stance.

"America has not been given the right to impose a 'Pax Americana' and to decide the fate of the world," Akiba said.

"Rather, we, the people of the world, have the right to insist that we have not given you the authority to destroy the world."

JAPAN'S NUCLEAR STANCE

[red]While Japan each year solemnly mourns its own war dead, less attention is paid to the victims of its military aggression and hardly any to the fact that its own military was engaged in research on an atomic bomb during World War II.[/red]

In a small but timely reminder of that research, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said at the weekend that secret documents on Japan's nuclear efforts, taken out of the country in 1949, had been returned to the institute in charge of the research.

Historians have long known about the research, although how much progress was made is a subject of debate.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, a close Koizumi aide, came under fire in June for hinting Japan might revise its "three non-nuclear principles" adopted in 1971.

The anniversary comes days after a reminder that Japan -- which has made much of its status as the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack -- was researching an atomic bomb during World War II, and just months after a top politician hinted Tokyo might someday abandon its decades-old ban on nuclear weapons.

Quoted:

I wonder if they commemmorate "Pearl Harbor Day" or "Bataan Death March  Day" or "Nanjing Massacre Day" or "Chinese And Korean Sex Slaves For Jap Troops Day" or "Torture of Tens Of Thousands of Allied Prisoners Day" or "Thousands of Biological Experiments on Chinese Prisoners Day" [pissed]

[b]Bataan Death March:[/b]
[url]http://ghostofbataan.com/image2/deathmarch.jpg[/url]
[url]http://www.terracom.net/~vfwpost/bataandb2.jpg[/url]

Quoted:
I got a friend who was a Marine and was stationed near Hiroshima.  He said there's a museum and everything, but the Japanese gloss over their aggression, and don't even mention ANY of the atrocities committed during and before the war.

My buddy ended up marrying a 1/2 Japanese girl that had lived there all her life.  She had NO idea about Pearl Harbor or Nanking or ANY of that.  Their children are NOT taught any of it, and consequently, have little to NO understanding of why American troops are stationed there.

Quoted:
I love the fact that we so decisively hit the Japanese that they still to this day have no will or inclination to fight a war ever again.  That's the kind of bitchslap only America can hand out, but sadly I think we'll never see that kind of resolve again.

Quoted:


REALLY fascinating story, SR.  Thanks for sharing it.  I appreciate your time typing it.  Thanks again!  [:)]