Luanda — Angola's ambassador to Japan, Teodolinda Rodrigues Coelho, witnessed on Thursday (6), in Hiroshima, the ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing that killed thousands of citizens in 1945.
According to a note from the diplomatic representation, the event took place at the Peace Memorial Park, erected in homage to the victims and was presided over by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who called for "a world free of nuclear weapons".
On the occasion, the mayor of Hiroshima, Matsui Kazumi, made a statement for peace and called on world leaders for the immediate abolition of nuclear weapons, recalling the catastrophic damage they cause to humanity.
The heat and radiation from the explosion destroyed the city, about 140,000 people died by the end of that year and many survivors suffer from cancer and other diseases related to radiation exposure.
The event featured representatives from 121 countries who joined the population of Hiroshima, representing all of Japan, in a pilgrimage to the Peace Memorial Park to honor the victims.
Hiroshima fell silent at 8:15 a.m., the same minute the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.
On Friday, continuing the visit's program, the Angolan ambassador to Japan, Teodolinda Coelho, will travel to Nagasaki, another Japanese city hit by an atomic bomb, dropped on August 9, 1945.
