Hiroshima marks bombing anniversary

Tens of thousands gathered in Hiroshima Thursday to mark 70 years since the dropping of the first atomic bomb, with opinion still divided over whether its deadly destruction was justified. Bells tolled as a solemn crowd observed a moment of silence at 8:15 am local time, when the detonation turned the bustling city into an inferno, killing thousands instantly and leaving others with horrific injuries to die a slow death. Children, elderly survivors and delegates representing 100 countries were in the crowd with many placing flowers in front of the cenotaph at Peace Memorial Park, as doves were released into the air. American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped a bomb, dubbed "Little Boy," on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. On August 9, the port city of Nagasaki was also attacked with an atomic bomb, killing more than 70,000 people. The twin bombings dealt the final blows to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. "As the only country ever attacked by an atomic bomb ... we have a mission to create a world without nuclear arms," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the crowd. "We have been tasked with conveying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons, across generations and borders." Japan plans to submit a fresh resolution to abolish nuclear weapons at the United Nations General Assembly later this year, he said. US Secretary of State John Kerry, at a regional diplomatic meeting in Malaysia, described the bombing as a "very, very powerful reminder" of the impact of war. US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and under-secretary for arms control, Rose Gottemoeller, the most senior Washington official ever sent to the service, attended Thursday's ceremony. While some historians say that they prevented many more casualties in a planned land invasion, critics counter that the attacks were not necessary to end the war, arguing that Japan was already heading for imminent defeat. This year's memorial comes days ahead of the scheduled restart of a nuclear reactor in southern Japan - the first one to go back on line after a two-year hiatus following the tsunami-sparked disaster at Fukushima in 2011. Japan's nationalist leader has also been criticized for efforts to expand the role of his pacifist country's Self-Defense Forces, changes that open the door to putting troops into combat for the first time since the war. Bomb survivors, known as hibakusha, demanded that Abe drop the military plan. "You must never make Japan a country that repeats the same mistakes (of the past)," Yukio Yoshioka, an 86-year-old, told Abe during a brief meeting on Thursday, local media said.