Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders gathered Wednesday in Manhattan to mark the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing with a ceremony featuring musicians and a survivor of the blast who now lives in New York state.
At precisely 7:15 p.m. New York time — coinciding with the exact moment the nuclear blast occurred seven decades ago — a peace bell was rung by more than a dozen attendees, including Tomiko Morimoto West, 83. She lived through the bomb's aftermath as a young girl.
"I am here. I survived and I live a peaceful life," she said. "I live on an airplane path (near her home in upstate New York) and when I look up and see the same kind of blue sky in August I don't have to be afraid and that is peace."