Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh, Hiroyasu Izumi highly appreciated Bangladeshis who show sympathy to the victims of atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In a message on the eve of 73rd anniversary of Hiroshima Day tomorrow, he said that Japan and Bangladesh stand hand in hand to make this world more peaceful and harmonious.

Ambassador Izumi, who was born and raised in Hiroshima, said he always finds himself praying for peace on this very day, 6th of August, no matter how far he isfrom Hiroshima.

"The facts deeply impressed me and made me very grateful to the people of Bangladesh for their sympathy and strong wish for peace. I was already proud to serve as a diplomat in such a country, even before arriving at Bangladesh," said the Japanese envoy at a programme today.

He said many people in Hiroshima have one or two of their family members, relatives or friends whose lives were fatally affected by the atomic bomb and the war, and his uncle is not an exception.

"My uncle was only 6 years old on the 6th of August, 1945. He and his school friends were out of town for a school trip when an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That school trip saved his life, but he could not go back to his own home as the whole city was burnt and destroyed," he said.

"Despite such a tragedy, I believe that people in Hiroshima do not have negative feeling toward the people of the country, which dropped the atomic bomb," he also said.

"We witnessed an overwhelming welcome for Barack Obama, then-President of the United States to visit Hiroshima and lay flowers for the victims of the atomic bomb in 2016. I personally believe that Hiroshima has sublimated the tragedy and has made it a peace-loving city."