Symbols of peace as city marks anniversary of atomic bombings

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 Jim McKenna laid a wreath to commemorate the anniversary and afterwards members of the public were invited to make and lay origami paper cranes, a worldwide symbol for peace, alongside the memorial.

A nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6 1945. Three days later another nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

The event included readings of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki 2010 peace declarations by the mayors of each city, the laying of a wreath by the Lord Mayor, a two-minute silence, readings of poetry written by survivors and the placing of the cranes.

The idea of placing the paper origami cranes came from Sadako Sasaki, a young Japanese girl who died from leukaemia caused by radiation 10 years after Hiroshima. Before she died she folded almost 1,000 origami paper cranes because of a legend which said anyone who achieved the feat would be granted a wish. Her wish was to be healthy once again.