With the last Atomic Bomb anniversary in the 20th century two weeks away, Hiroshima children on Sunday offered their yearly prayer for world peace in front of the Children's Peace Monument at Peace Memorial Park in the city's Naka Ward.
The annual memorial service, which this year marked the 12th time it has been held, was put on by the organizing committee, mainly consisting of local junior high school students.
About 300 elementary and junior high school students in the city offered a silent prayer in front of the monument, followed by a reading of poems portraying the circumstances after the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the center of the city.
Children also placed more than 20,000 paper cranes at the monument as a wish for peace.