About 100 people gathered at the museum reserve for the noon vigil, which marked the anniversaries of the dropping of atomic bombson Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.
There to speak were two survivors of the Hiroshima bombing, Shigeko Niimoto Sasamori (80) and Michimasa Hirata (77), as part of a nationwide tour commemorating the 67th anniversary of the bombings.
The pair - whose stories featured in the Otago Daily Times on Saturday - relayed their horrific experiences to the crowd.
University of Otago National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies director Kevin Clements told the crowd the "diabolical weapons" were "the work of the devil".
Dunedin, like the rest of the world, needed to do "what we can to ensure these weapons are abolished, once and for all", he said.
However, he also urged those at Saturday's ceremony to see the occasion as a reason for hope, with a performance by the University's O-Taiko taiko drumming club to remind people of "all that makes life worthwhile".
