Below is the text of the speech delivered by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Thursday's memorial ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the city's atomic bombing.
Here today, at the opening of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing, I reverently express my sincere condolences to the souls of the great number of atomic bomb victims.
I also extend my deepest sympathy to those still suffering from the aftereffects of the atomic bomb even now.