Japan's Emperor, Empress Arrive in Hiroshima

   Hiroshima, June 19 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako arrived in Hiroshima Prefecture on Thursday to commemorate the victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city of Hiroshima, the prefecture's capital, as this year marks 80 years since the end of World War II.
   A special plane carrying the Imperial couple left Tokyo's Haneda Airport in the morning and arrived in Hiroshima for their first visit to the western Japan prefecture since the Emperor's enthronement in 2019.
   The Emperor and Empress are scheduled to visit the Peace Memorial Park in the city of Hiroshima in the afternoon to offer flowers at the cenotaph for those who died in the atomic bombing.
   The couple will then pay visits to the Exhibit Facility for Atomic-Bombed Remnants, which opened in 2022, and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. At the museum, they will hold talks with hibakusha atomic bomb survivors.
   On Friday morning, the couple will visit the Yagi district of the city's Asaminami Ward, which suffered serious damage from massive landslides in 2014. After inspecting an erosion control dam built in the district, the couple will go to the Hiroshima City Torrential Rain Disaster Memorial Center, which opened in 2023. They will have talks with disaster-afflicted people at the memorial center.

(2025/06/19-13:59)

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