A crowd gathered at the Otago Museum reserve yesterday for a thoughtful ceremony to mark Hiroshima Day.
A delegation from a girls' high school from the Japanese city was among those present.
Commemorations of the World War 2 atomic bombing of the city, where more than 100,000 people died, have been held in Dunedin for the past 10 years.
Hiroshima Day is organised by the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, at the University of Otago.
Centre foundation chairman Kevin Clements said pupils from Yasuda Girls' High School were visiting their sister school in Dunedin.
They performed a song, and their presence gave the ceremony "an additional poignancy''.
Other speakers and musical performances included O-Taiko - Dunedin's taiko drumming ensemble - and the Koto Ensemble.
University of Otago neuroscience and computer science student Chen Loung (18) wrote a song for the occasion, which was performed by members of the public.
Ano Senko (That flash) took him only a week to compose and used the lyrics of two poems, August 6, by Toge Sankichi and November, by William Stafford.
Mr Loung, originally from China, said he had had ``wonderful'' support from the community when it came to getting people to help out and perform it.
The song was about remembering that humans ``have the potential to do so much damage'' and acknowledging civilians were sacrificed in war.
