THE Hiroshima Remembrance taking place today in Coventry is an active witness when we commemorate the enormity of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and strengthen our ongoing friendship with the people of that city and Japan, all of us seeking a world free of nuclear weapons as soon as possible.

Active witness is the partner of active campaigning, when we show that we care, and as others watch our witness, we can increase the opinion of the public to have a world free of nuclear weapons.

Japanese ambassador Nagamine Yasumasa said: “Coventry’s Hiroshima Day remembrance is a true symbol of peace and reconciliation. I would like to start by extending my deepest respect to all the people involved for organising this service this year under these unprecedented circumstances. It is truly significant that the Hiroshima Day service has been held for more than 30 years.”

Hiroshima was largely destroyed by an atomic bomb on August 6 1945 — one of two bombs detonated by the US. The second was detonated over Nagasaki on August 9.

The two bombs combined killed up to 266,000 people, most of whom were civilians. These bombings remain the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

The city of Coventry which suffered a devastating bombing in 1940 has found common cause with Hiroshima in making the case for peace.

In Hiroshima itself the attack is commemorated each year at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. In Coventry an event is held each year in the cathedral built out of the ruins of the medieval cathedral destroyed in 1941.

Coventry’s Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation from its start focused on delivering a thought-provoking annual peace lecture.

The late Mo Molam, MP and an architect of the Belfast Agreement, environmental campaigner Jonathan Porritt and author Michael Morpurgo have been speakers in previous years.

In 1987 the committee began an annual service of remembrance for the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

The centre was the story of Sadako Sasaki and making paper “cranes of peace,” a tradition based on the story of a real victim of the bombing.

After being diagnosed with leukaemia from radiation caused by the bomb as young girl, Sasaki’s friends told her to fold origami paper cranes in hope of making a thousand of them.

She was inspired to do so by the Japanese legend that one who created a thousand origami cranes would be granted a wish. She died aged 12.

Coventry City Council has been supportive and speakers have been grateful for hospitality and transport, touched by speeches of welcome by successive lord mayors.

In 2018, when Coventry applied to be UK City of Culture, our reputation as a city of peace and reconciliation was a unique selling point, and in 2021 it won that status.

Today, Friday August 6, will be our 35th Hiroshima Day service in Coventry Cathedral and Coventry Cathedral Chapel of Unity.

Covid means we will have a socially distanced event this year again, or you are welcome to watch on the livestream on our Facebook https://tiny.cc/cathfacebook. We look forward to welcoming all.

David Fish is secretary of the Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation.