Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko took their 10-year-old son Prince Hisahito, third in line to the Chrysanthemum throne, to see relics of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Tuesday.
On his first visit to Nagasaki during a private trip, Prince Hisahito offered flowers at the ground zero monument in the Nagasaki Peace Park dedicated to victims of the bombing. The family also went to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture.
Hibakusha and former Nagasaki University President Hideo Tsuchiyama, 91, spoke about his experience to the prince, a fourth-grader at Ochanomizu University Elementary School, the Imperial Household Agency said.
Like Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, the family of Prince Akishino, who is second in line to the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito, observes a moment of silence on the anniversary of the end of WWII, Okinawa Memorial Day, and the days when the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.
"To be able to understand war, it is important to make conscious efforts by oneself such as listening to the talk of people of that time and reading books," Prince Akishino said in a news conference in November 2015 on the occasion of his birthday.
In December 2013, the couple took their son to the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, site of the final stage of the Battle of Okinawa in World War II.