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Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never be forgotten
Ahead of Hiroshima Day next week, FRANCES and CHRIS TAGGART recall the 1,000 cranes children's tradition of commemorating the horrors of the surprise nuclear attack on August 6 1945
WORLDWIDE TRADITION: (L to R) Japanese school children deliver 1,000 paper origami cranes to the memorial for Sadako Sasaki in Hiroshima Peace Park. Today school children all over Japan (not to mention the world) continue to fold paper cranes and send them to her monument in a universal wish for peace; Sadako Sasaki in a festive dress in March 1955; Sadako Sasaki memorial in Hiroshima [(L to R) Andrew Dunn/CC - unknown public domain - Jaime Perez/flickr/CC]

ON AUGUST 6 1945 an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and a second one on Nagasaki three days later.

Destruction of the two Japanese cities was complete so that numbers of people killed can only be estimated. At least 100,000 were killed instantly or in the first day and many more later when the effects of radiation became known.

This was a horrific act of war that we hope never to repeat.

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