Mona Nakanishi, a TV celebrity from Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, believed until she moved to Tokyo that children across Japan came to school every Aug. 6 to offer prayers for victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The 37-year-old ex-news anchorwoman, formerly known as Mona Yamamoto, said children in Hiroshima were once taught to fear the sound of an airplane flying overhead during summer.
"But I learned that these are peculiar feelings only people in Hiroshima Prefecture have," said Nakanishi, who at 18 went to a university in Tokyo. She grew up in Onomichi, a city along the Seto Inland Sea about 70 km east of the city of Hiroshima.