HIROSHIMA, Japan – Japan’s Prince Hisahito, the son of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, offered flowers at a cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Friday. It was the first time for the 19-year-old prince, second in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne, to undertake official duties outside Tokyo without being accompanied by other members of the Imperial Family throughout the trip.
His visit to Hiroshima came one day after the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city. Other events on Prince Hisahito’s itinerary for Friday include a visit to Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum in the city, where part of a school building hit by the nuclear attack in the closing days of World War II is preserved, and a speech at a gathering of the Nippon Scout Jamboree in the town of Jinsekikogen in Hiroshima Prefecture. He is slated to visit the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of History in the city of Fukuyama on Saturday before returning to Tokyo. (TNA)
