TODAY, Wednesday, August 6 marks 80 years since US, UK and Allied Forces detonated an Atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima in Japan.

Tens of thousands of people were killed.

This morning, Exeter Quakers organised a vigil at St Lawrence Green in Crediton from 8am to 8.30am, with a cymbal crash at 8.15am, the time when the bomb was dropped.

A total of 25 people attended when a silence was observed, there was a speech by the Mayor of Crediton, Cllr Steve Huxtable and a song was sung, Life a Different Way, words and melody by Rachel Rowlands, arranged by Helen Lyle.

Members of the public, local Quakers and Crediton clergy were among those who attended.

Cllr Huxtable said: “With this vigil and the cymbal crash we have just heard, we commemorate the devastating bombing of Hiroshima at 8.15am, 80 years ago.

“Estimates quote that between 60,000 and 80,000 people were killed instantly with 90,000 to 165,000 by the end of the year, and many more suffered burns, disfigurements, injuries and anxiety for the rest of their lives.

“Twenty-six years later one survivor wrote: ‘I was three months pregnant when the A-bomb fell. In February the following year my son was born, a microcephalic baby…My concern is his future.”

“Nuclear war must never happen again. It is for each of us to work for peace individually, locally and beyond, however we can.

“Crediton Town Council will discuss becoming part of an international network called Mayors for Peace, established in 1982 by the Mayor of Hiroshima.

“With almost 8,500 members in 166 countries, Mayors for Peace is one of the largest representative organisations of local government in the world, enabling Mayors across the world to join with the atom-bomb cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in working for a peaceful, nuclear-weapon-free world.”

Quaker Laura Conyngham, from Crediton, visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki when she was 25, meeting citizens in Hiroshima who asked her to lay a bouquet on the Peace Memorial for a photograph for their civic leaflet.

“That night I wrote to my MP and to the Prime Minister,” she says.

“A group of schoolgirls, sharing my Youth Hostel dormitory, asked me, ‘Do British people know about the Bomb?’, I didn’t like to admit that we didn’t.”

Quakers say: “Think it possible that you may be mistaken” and “World peace will come through the will of ordinary people like yourself.”

Speaking after the Crediton vigil she said: “I was really pleased with the turnout today, I think we had 25 people which at 8am is something and that included our Mayor Steve Huxtable and Claire Willman, who crashed the cymbal, she is a professional Town Band percussionist.

“Also just people who practised the song and who were here.

“It went really well and was deep and emotive.

“People were free to speak and think their own thoughts. Death is close to us all and it will go on, war goes on.”

Exeter Quakers will hold a second vigil on Saturday, August 9.

The Nagasaki Vigil, with Exeter’s Lord Mayor in attendance, will be outside the West Door of Exeter Cathedral from 10.45am to 11.15am.

The cymbal will crash at 11.02am.

Everyone is welcome.