Hiroshima memorial vandalised

A suspected right-wing extremist vandalised a memorial for the victims of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, scraping off a reference to Japan’s war effort as a mistake, officials and news reports said today.

The cenotaph for the bomb victims at the centre of Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park was defaced last night, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said.

“Such an act not only tramples the hearts and souls of Hiroshima and those wishing for world peace, but also desecrates the spirits of atomic bomb victims,” Akiba said in a statement.

Kyodo News agency reported that police today arrested Takeo Shimazu, a member of a right-wing group. Hiroshima police refused to confirm the report.

Shimazu reportedly objected to the criticism of Japan’s imperial policies in Asia in the 1930s and ’40s. The memorial says: “Let all the souls here rest in peace, as we will never repeat this mistake.”

“I did not like the word ‘mistake’ part of the memorial,” Kyodo quoted Shimazu as telling police. “It was not the Japanese citizens, but the US who dropped the atomic bomb and made the mistake.”

Shimazu is accused of using a hammer and chisel to deface the stone memorial, which is in a large park near the epicentre of the August 6, 1945, blast that killed 140,000 people.

The attack comes as Japan is preparing to mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing, which was followed by another atomic attack by the US on Nagasaki on August 9.

Japan subsequently surrendered to the Allies on August 15, bringing World War II to an end.