Why Was Hiroshima Celebrating Two Years After The Atomic Bomb Dropped?

On Aug. 6, 1947, the people of Hiroshima announced that their city was a "world mecca for peace". One might have expected the people of Hiroshima, on the second anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb, to convene in mourning for a tragedy still painfully fresh. But on Aug. 6, 1947, the people of that city gathered to send a message of hope and resilience to the world: The epicenter of the bombing was now, they declared, the epicenter of world peace.

LIFE Magazine, having assigned Cary Mydans to photograph the festival, described how the tone of that day seemed incongruous to those who read about it in the press:

http://time.com/3974610/hiroshima-peace-festival-1947/