San Diegans gathered at the Peace Bell on Shelter Island this morning to mark the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. One of the speakers was a man who survived the explosion.
Mark Kawamura was two-and-a-half years old when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima. A small mountain called Hijiyama stood between the bomb blast and his home, and he survived. Kawamura is now an executive for Kyocera in San Diego. He says, despite his young age, he remembers the sky that day.
"In the evening as I look at the North sky, it was very bright and red. That was all I remember that was, you know, etched into my mind," said Kawamura.
His father also survived. Kawamura says he hopes in the future the world can abolish all nuclear weapons.
On Monday, Japanese Americans in San Diego will ring the Peace Bell once more to mark the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.