Nagasaki marks 70th anniversary of bomb

A bell tolled in Nagasaki to signal the start of a minute of silence at 11:02 local time (0202 UTC) on Sunday, precisely 70 years after a US bomber air force plane dropped the atomic bomb on the city, killing around 74,000 people and injuring a similar number more. Nagasaki had a population of 240,000 people in 1945.

Among those expected to attend the ceremony in Nagasaki's peace park were many survivors, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, and the US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Rose Gottemoeller. Diplomats from more than 70 other countries were also scheduled to attend.

Prior to the official ceremony, some attended church services to remember the victims.

Second nuclear bombing

The attack on Nagasaki came three days after the US became the first country to use a nuclear weapon, when a B-29 bomber dropped a bomb on Hiroshima, killing an estimated 140,000 people. Imperial Japan surrendered less than a week later, bringing an end to World War II.

At Thursday's ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan would submit a fresh resolution at the United Nations General Assembly later this year, calling for nuclear weapons to be abolished.

"As the only country ever attacked by an atomic bomb... we have a mission to create a world without nuclear arms," he said. "We have been tasked with conveying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons, across generations and borders."

This year's memorials come days ahead of the scheduled restart of a nuclear reactor in the south of the country, which would be the first to go back on line after a two-year hiatus following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima facility, which was sparked by an earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

pfd/bk (AP, dpa, AFP)