Following is the full text of the Peace Declaration issued Wednesday by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui during a ceremony to mark the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima:

Summer, 69 years later. The burning sun takes us back to "that day." August 6, 1945. A single atomic bomb renders Hiroshima a burned plain. From infants to the elderly, tens of thousands of innocent civilians lose their lives in a single day. By the end of the year, 140,000 have died. To avoid forgetting that sacred sacrifice and to prevent a repetition of that tragedy, please listen to the voices of the survivors.

Approximately 6,000 young boys and girls died removing buildings for fire lanes. One who was a 12-year-old junior high student at the time says, "Even now, I carry the scars of war and that atomic bombing on my body and in my heart. Nearly all my classmates were killed instantly. My heart is tortured by guilt when I think how badly they wanted to live and that I was the only one who did." Having somehow survived, hibakusha still suffer from severe physical and emotional wounds.