Japan marks 70th anniversary of Hiroshima atomic bombing

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hiroshima on August 6 to mark 70 years since the atomic bombing that helped end World War II but still divides opinion today over whether the total destruction it caused was justified.

Bells tolled as a solemn crowd observed a moment of silence at 8:15 am local time (2315 GMT), when the detonation turned the western Japanese city into an inferno, killing thousands instantly and leaving others to die a slow death with horrible injuries.
 
Children, elderly survivors and delegates representing 100 countries were in attendance with many placing flowers in front of the cenotaph at Peace Memorial Park in downtown Hiroshima.
 
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US ambassador Caroline Kennedy, and under-secretary for arms control Rose Gottemoeller, the most senior Washington official ever sent to the service, were in attendance.
 
"As the only country ever attacked by an atomic bomb... we have a mission to create a world without nuclear arms," Abe told the crowd.
 
"We have been tasked with conveying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons, across generations and borders."  
The premier said his country would submit a fresh resolution to abolish nuclear weapons at the UN general assembly later this year.
 
This year's memorial comes just days ahead of the scheduled restart of a nuclear reactor in southern Japan -- the first one to go back on line after two years of complete hiatus following the tsunami-sparked disaster at Fukushima in 2011.
 
While Abe's government has pushed to switch reactors back on, public opposition to atomic power remains high after Fukushima, the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
 
Abe, a strident nationalist, has also...