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GV exterior Budokan Hall (2 shots)
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GV Interior orchestra playing
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SV relatives of victims
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GV interior PAN TO Emperor arriving on platform
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SV flowers
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SV Emperor and congregation stand for one minute's silence
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Initials KP/AS/BJ



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Tokyo on Saturday. 15 August Emperor Hirohito led the nation in mourning more than three million dead as Japan marked the 25th anniversary of the end of the second world war.

At the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, five thousand bereaved relatives gathered for an hour-long ceremony during which the 69-year old Emperor, with Empress Nagako at his side, stood before a flower-decked memorial to observe one minutes silence at 12 noon - the precise moment when a quarter of a century ago an awed nation heard him broadcast the end of the war.

As the bells tolled and the Rising Sun flew at half mast, the Japanese looked back upon 25 years during which they has progressed from total devastation to the status of a world economic power.