Hastings residents gather to commemorate anniversary of Hiroshima

The event, held at Alexandra Park, was held on Thursday (August 6) evening.

The event was first held by Hastings Against War (HAW) in 2005 and has been staged annually since 2007.

This year, people gathered in Alexandra Park to remember the estimated 185,000 people who died as a consequence of the bombs dropped by the US air-force on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Each year those killed are remembered in ceremonies around the world as people affirm such nuclear attacks should never be repeated.

Organisers were forced to make some changes this year, due to the Covid-19 crisis.

There were no speeches or singing, and traditional Japanese floating lanterns, which are usually released on the lake at sunset, with someone venturing into the shallow water to retrieve them later, was not allowed. Instead, the lanterns were placed at the edge of the lake, becoming more conspicuous as the day darkened.

Explaining the enforced changes, Hastings Borough Council said: "We advised them to follow government guidance in relation to gatherings and explained that there should be no more than 30 people in attendance and they should be socially distanced.

"We also suggested they could stream the event so that people could feel involved if they could not attend.

"We were advised that they normally place lanterns in the lake, so we suggested they found an alternative way to ensure the safety of everyone involved. For example placing them on the concrete hardstanding around the edge, so they are easily retrievable."

The 75th anniversary of the bombings has meant the activity around Hiroshima Day has been given an added urgency this year.

That activity has included one of the Atomic bomb survivors (or ‘hibakusha’) Setsuko Thurlow writing a letter to Boris Johnson and other world leaders urging them to support the elimination of nuclear weapons. Setsuko was a 13 year old schoolgirl when the bomb exploded above her community of Hiroshima.

In the letter she writes: "A bright summer morning turned to dark twilight with smoke and dust rising in the mushroom cloud, dead and injured covering the ground, begging desperately for water and receiving no medical care at all."

She writes that most of her classmates were ‘burned to death. I can still hear their voices calling their mothers and God for help.’