City recalls bombing victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The annual event, which remembers the innocent victims of the bombings, took place at the Mayors for Peace memorial, in the centre of Park Square.

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Coun Rev Alan Taylor laid a wreath to commemorate the anniversary and members of the public were invited to lay origami paper cranes, a world wide symbol for peace, alongside the memorial.

Most of the cranes were folded earlier this year as part of a disaster fundraiser led by local art enthusiast Kirsty Ware, an employee at Leeds Council.

The event raised £1,000 to help victims and survivors of the Japanese earthquake.

Coun Rev Alan Taylor said: “This annual service gives people in Leeds the chance to reflect and remember the terrible events of 1945 that happened in Japan.”

Over 200,000 people were killed and tens of thousands more suffered serious injuries in the two attacks on Japanese cities as part of the Second World War.

The event included readings of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki 2011 peace declarations by the mayors of each city, the laying of a wreath by the Lord Mayor, a two minutes silence, readings of poetry written by survivors of the bombings and the placing of the origami cranes.