Heed lesson of history in tragedy of two cities

At a ceremony of remembrance in Hiroshima on Thursday, the city's mayor, Kazumi Matsui, made a renewed call for a nuclear weapons-free world.

Seventy years ago, a US B-29 bomber dropped the world's first atomic bomb on the Japanese city. At least 70,000 people were killed that day, and at least the same number are believed to have died from injuries caused by radiation poisoning afterwards.

The bombing of Hiroshima, together with the bombing of Nagasaki three days later, made Japan the only country that has been attacked with atomic bombs. In this regard, Japan deserves the sympathy of the rest of the world as ordinary Japanese people were also victims of the war.