Nagasaki marks 60th anniversary of bombing

Around 6,000 people gathered for a sombre ceremony at Nagasaki's Peace Memorial Park Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing that killed tens of thousands of people in the city, and ended the Second World War.

A siren wailed and a bronze bell rang out marking the moment on 11:02 a.m. Aug. 9, 1945 an American plane dropped the plutonium bomb, killing more than 70,000 people.

• INDEPTH: Timeline: U.S. and Japan in the Second World War

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who was joined by hundreds of aging bomb survivors, placed a wreath before the monument to the dead and bowed deeply.

"This is an occasion to remember the victims and pray for world peace," he said.

"Together with some 260,000 A-bomb survivors...I swear in the presence of the souls of the victims of the atomic bombing to continue to tirelessly demand that Nagasaki be the last A-bomb site," said Fumie Sakamoto, who represented the survivors at Tuesday's memorial.

Following a moment of silence, Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh had strong words for the nuclear powers, singling out the United States.

"To the citizens of the United States of America: We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of the horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," he said. "Yet, is your security enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons?"

The attack on Nagasaki came three days after the U.S. dropped a uranium-based nuclear weapon on Hiroshima in the world's first atomic bomb attack. That bombing killed 200,000 people.

Around 55,000 people crowded into Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park to mark the 60th anniversary of the attack last week.

The city of Kokura, not Nagasaki, was the primary target of the second A-bomb. But Kokura was hidden under clouds and thick smoke from previous bombing raids of a nearby city, forcing the plane carrying the weapon to change course for Nagasaki.

The remains of thousands of the dead from the attack have never been found. Japanese estimates of the death toll itself range from 60,000 to 80,000. Nagasaki officials on Tuesday used 74,000 as the death figure.

Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending the Second World War.