The consecration of names to the register of the victims of the bombing began at 8:00 a.m. Mayor Akiba and representatives of bereaved families laid two volumes containing the 4,977 names whose deaths have been confirmed over the past year in the stone chest. The list now occupying 79 volumes contains a total of 226,870 names.

In the Peace Declaration, Mayor Akiba said that the world in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks has strayed off the path of "severing chains of hatred, violence, and retaliation." He quoted President Kennedy's statement that the path of reconciliation "requires only that (each man) live together with mutual tolerance." Introducing the term "Pax Americana" (an international order dominated by U.S. interests), he made a pointed jab at the world's nuclear superpower, saying "The United States government has no right to .. unilaterally determine the fate of the world."

Mayor Akiba also urged President Bush to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to "encounter the human legacy" of the atomic bomb experience. It is virtually unprecedented for an individual name to appear in the Peace Declaration, and the mayor has never before invited a leader of a nuclear weapon state to Hiroshima by name.

The mayor asked the Japanese government to reject nuclear weapons absolutely and to renounce war. He also called for assistance to hibakusha dwelling overseas.

In his address, Prime Minister Koizumi vowed that Japan would hold fast to its three non-nuclear principles, saying, "Japan will stand at the forefront of the international community and do all we can to abolish nuclear weapons." A message by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, called for preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. Vice Rector of United Nations University Ramesh Thakur read the Secretary-General's message.

During the ceremony, Naomitsu Miwa (12), a sixth-grade student at Koi Elementary School, and Yoshie Hijioka (11), a sixth-grade student at Dambara Elementary School, delivered the Commitment to Peace in confident tones. They promised to inherit and pass on the atomic bombing experience.

As evidenced by an average age of 70.8, the survivors are getting on in years. Amid days of relentless heat, reluctance to sit through the ceremony under the blistering sun is the probable reason that attendance was down this year by about 5,000.

(Caption)The A-bomb Dome as seen by participants at the Peace Memorial Ceremony. (August 6, 7:40 a.m., Peace Memorial Park in Naka-ku, Hiroshima City)