Grateful to India for remembering Hiroshima victims: Japan minister

The minute's silence observed by the Indian Parliament today in homage to the victims of the Hiroshima bombing 70 years back was described as a "touching moment" by Japanese Minister Motoyuki Fujii here as he prayed for a world "free from all kind of violence and wars".

The Japanese Minister of State for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his message of solidarity for the victims of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.

"It was really a very touching moment for us (people of Japan) when the Indian Parliament kept a one minute silence to pay respect and show solidarity towards the victims of Hiroshima bombing.

"We are extremely touched and feel grateful to the people of India for this," Fujii told PTI here.

Fujii further said, "I thank Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tweeted his condolences for the victims, and even our Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has replied thanking PM Modi on this."

In a tweet today, Modi said, "My homage to all those who lost their lives in Hiroshima. The bombings remind us of the horrors of war & their effect on humanity."

Reciprocating the message, Modi's Japanese counterpart, Abe, tweeted, "PM Modi, thank you from my heart for your thoughtful message... I deeply appreciate Indian people's solidarity for Hiroshima. Let's continue to work together for the cause of world peace."

Fujii, meanwhile, visited Sarnath here and said that it was a "touching experience" for him.

"Japan is a Buddhist-centric country. Most of the Japanese people recognise India as the place where Buddhism originated and they (Japanese people) have a lot of affinity towards India," he said.

Fujii, who met three Union ministers in Delhi, said that his meeting was very fruitful.

"I had a good fortune to meet three Union ministers, including science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan.

Discussions were held on a wide range of issues and were very fruitful," he said.

Fujii, who reached Varanasi today, will inaugurate the 6th IJAA-JSPS International conference on 'Contemporary Advances of Science and Technology' starting tomorrow at Banaras Hindu University here.

-PTI