The memorial at the Museum Reserve yesterday featured speakers, Japanese drumming, poetry readings and a karakia.
National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies director Prof Richard Jackson said it was important to acknowledge the lives lost in the bombing of Hiroshima 76 years ago, but nuclear weapons were still a problem today.
The catastrophic damage that nuclear weapons could cause did not discriminate between competence and incompetence.
These weapons were being developed all around the world, and cost huge amounts of money that would be better put towards solving issues such as climate change, he said.
Japanese drumming group Dunedin O-Taiko began the ceremony with a traditional performance.
Drummer Henry Johnson said it was important not to forget the thousands of lives lost in the bombings.
‘‘We don’t want anything like that ever again,’’ he said.
At the conclusion of the ceremony those present were given a paper crane to place at the base of the Otago Museum Peace Pole, which symbolised the lives lost in the bombings.
