Llangollen's poignant service for 80th anniversary of VE Day
On Thursday (May 8), the Llangollen branch of the Royal British Legion hosted a service of commemoration in Centenary Square.
Prayers were said by Father Lee Taylor from St Collen's Church and there were readings from Legion branch chairman Mike Adams and member Tug Wilson.
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Flags were lowered by a standard party and the traditional minute's silence was observed. The service ended with the sounding of Last Post.
Immediately afterwards on the library steps, a civic party led by the Town Mayor, Cllr Aled Morris, and town crier Austin Cheminais read proclamations signifying the end of the Second World War in Europe 80 years ago.
The Town Hall frontage was then floodlit in patriotic red, white and blue.
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Yet many on the Left, Parry tells me, regarded Nagai as 'at best a naïve enabler of the Americans and conservative Japanese, at worst a reactionary collaborator, whose writing 'anaesthetised' its readers and prevented them from identifying those responsible for the war'. While Hiroshima became the cradle of a furious peace movement, which was determined to abolish nuclear weapons, Nagasaki withdrew in stoic sorrow. Few could read The Bells of Nagasaki today and not tremble at the thought of another nuclear conflict. At one point, Nagai is visited by two former students, returning from the war with bitter hearts. 'We must get our revenge,' they say. 'Even if it takes ten years, we'll win this war.' But Nagai tells them: 'If you had seen the hell that opened up on earth before our eyes, you would never, never entertain the crazy thought of another war. If there is another war, atomic bombs will explode everywhere, and innumerable ordinary people will be annihilated in the flash of a split second.' On May 1 1951, Nagai died, aged 43. Around 20,000 mourners attended his funeral, swarming the entrance to Urakami Cathedral. Today, as belligerent nations pack their armouries with nuclear warheads, his book offers an urgent warning. 'Men and women of the world, never again plan war!' he implores us from the grave. 'Grant that Urakami may be the last atomic wilderness in the history of the world.'
