HIROSHIMA, June 20 Kyodo - A ceremony was held in the city of Hiroshima on Sunday in memory of the late Marcel Junod, a Swiss doctor who helped in the treatment of victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II.

Junod's eldest son Benoit Junod, 58, attended the ceremony, which was held at the city's Peace Memorial Park, and said in a speech that his father was anxious to see an abolition of nuclear weapons after seeing the effects of the atomic bomb.

The late Junod, who was born in 1904 and died in 1961, came to Hiroshima as chief delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross a month after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on the city on Aug. 6, 1945.

He arranged for 15 tons of medical supplies to be sent to Hiroshima and himself treated the bomb victims.

The Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association and the Hiroshima branch of the Japanese Red Cross Society have been holding a memorial ceremony for Junod every year around June 16, the date of his death.

This year's ceremony, which is the 15th, marks the 100th anniversary of Junod's birth.

Local children's choir groups and brass bands performed, and around 130 people lined up to lay white chrysanthemums at his monument. ==Kyodo