Lights of hope nestled in decorated lanterns were released into the pond at the Japanese garden in Harling Park, Blenheim, last night in memory of the victims of the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, 1945.

This is the third year Jos Rossell, of the Marlborough Peace Walk group, has organised the event, aimed at bringing the community together and remembering the devastation caused by the atomic bomb.

"It's worth remembering the destructive power of nuclear weapons. I can't imagine anything more horrifying," she said.

It also brought the community together in a way that did not happen as often as it used to, Ms Rossell said.

"Our lives are losing their community colour; we used to have festivals many moons ago, and this serves as a spring festival," she said.

Russell Hopkins, who helped build the garden, was there to report back to Takahisa Yamaguchi, a landscape architect from Tendo. Mr Yamaguchi designed the garden and was at the official opening in 2005.

Mr Yamaguchi was interested in knowing how the garden was being used, Mr Hopkins said.

The garden was created to celebrate Blenheim's sister-city relationship with Tendo.

The garden had the three elements crucial to a Japanese garden - water, greenery, and rocks, Mr Hopkins said.

A teahouse was still to be built near the waterfall, something that had been in the works for about six years but lacked funding, he said.

Meanwhile, in Hiroshima a bell marked the start of the one-minute silence at 8.15am local time when the United States bomber Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb, which killed 140,000 people in 1945.

Mayor Kazumi Matsui yesterday called for a nuclear-free world at the special event at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

- The Marlborough Express

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