Photo/Illutration The ceremony held on Aug. 6, 2017, at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to mark the city's 1945 atomic bombing (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Memorial ceremonies in August to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be sharply scaled back because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

This year, the two city governments decided to provide only about 10 percent of the seats arranged at the venues in normal years.

Priority will be given to the hibakusha survivors of the atomic bombing and relatives of the tens of thousands of people who perished in the attacks.

General bystanders will not be allowed entry into the memorial parks where the ceremonies will be held to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections when a large crowd gathers in close quarters.

The Hiroshima city government announced May 29 that 880 seats at most will be laid out in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the Aug. 6 ceremony.

In ordinary years, about 11,500 seats are arranged for the ceremony, but this year each seat will be set up about two meters apart. There will no seating for the general audience.

If U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is unable to visit Japan in August as hoped, event organizers plan to broadcast a video message from him at the ceremony.

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki city governments had planned to jointly host an exhibition on the atomic bombings in Hawaii from early July until September. But at the May 29 news conference, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said the exhibition must be unavoidably delayed due to the health crisis.

Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue also said May 29 that his city will drastically reduce seating for its Aug. 9 ceremony.

Only about 500 people will be allowed to attend. Last year, about 5,000 people gathered at Nagasaki Peace Park, including a number of ambassadors to Japan.

While about 4,000 seats were used last year, only 500 will be set up this year, each two meters apart.

Those invited will likely be limited to representatives of the five hibakusha organizations in the city.

But the general public will be allowed into the park after the ceremony to mourn the victims of the atomic bombing.

(This article was compiled from reports by Takashi Togo and Rika Yuminaga.)

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