The official plans had been appropriately grand: 11,500 attendees would gather in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park for a somber ceremony commemorating the 75^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city by the United States on August 6, 1945. But the pandemic had other plans.

As it has done in most cities around the world, the COVID-19 virus has altered or canceled much of Hiroshima’s daily life: concerts, marathons, museum exhibits. The anniversary ceremony will still take place on August 6, albeit with 10,000 fewer attendees. Only bomb survivors—or hibakusha—and their families may now attend. Audience members will be seated six feet apart in the park. World leaders, no longer able to attend in person, have been asked to