NAGASAKI: High school students from 17 Japanese prefectures formed a human chain in Nagasaki on Friday, which marked the 79th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city, to show solidarity for the abolition of nuclear weapons and world peace.

At the hypocenter park in the city, about 100 people, including students playing the role of “peace messengers,” laid flowers at a monument built to remember victims of the atomic bombing on Aug. 9, 1945, in the closing days of World War II, and then held hands each other to form a human chain and encircle the monument.

“We will continue making efforts to realize a world without nuclear weapons and war under the slogan that ‘we are not powerless although our power is weak,'” Rintaro Sato, a 17-year-old high school second grader from the northeastern prefecture of Iwate, said, representing the participants.

“I think we have to pass on to the next generation the thoughts we inherited from those who survived the atomic bombing,” Yuka Ohara, 17, also a second grader, from Nagasaki Prefecture, said.

In addition to the high school students, many people visited the hypocenter park Friday to mourn victims of the bombing. Eiko Yasunaga, a 75-year-old resident of the city of Nagasaki, said: “My grandfather died (in the atomic bombing) when he went out to deliver food to people evacuated at a shelter. I want people not to forget the value of peace and the fact that an atomic bomb was dropped (on Nagasaki).”

About 200 people paid tribute to the atomic bomb victims and prayed for peace at a mass held at Urakami Cathedral in the city the same day.

Tatsumi Nakamura, 86, who attended the mass, expressed concern about the situation in Gaza, where many people, including children, have been killed in the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

“I prayed for peace” at the mass, Tatsumi said, supporting Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki’s decision not to invite Israel to the city’s peace ceremony for this year to mark the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing.

JIJI Press