A siren wailed and a bronze bell rang out today as Nagasaki marked the moment 60 years ago when an American plane dropped a plutonium bomb on the city, killing tens of thousands of people.
About 6,000 people, including hundreds of bomb survivors, today crowded into Nagasaki's Peace Memorial Park, a few hundred yards from the centre of the blast, for a solemn remembrance and moment of silence.
A Japanese woman burns incense to comfort the souls of victims. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
When the silence ended, Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh had some angry words for the leaders of the nuclear powers, and especially 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?"
Mr Itoh also urged Japan to get out from under the US "nuclear umbrella." About 50,000 US troops are deployed throughout Japan under a post World War II mutual security pact.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi 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.
Today's remembrances began just after sunrise, and hundreds of Catholics joined in a special Mass at Urakami Cathedral, which at the time of the bombing was the largest in Asia with 12,000 parishioners, 8,500 of whom are believed to have been killed.
When bomb exploded at 11.02am locally in 1945, two priests were hearing confessions inside the cathedral and 30 faithful were inside. Everyone in the church died and the statues around them turned black because of the intense heat.
Nagasaki was not the primary target in the US military plans. Three days after the Enola Gayairplane dropped the "Little Boy" bomb on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 in the world's first atomic bomb attack, another plane took off to deliver the second A-bomb to the nearby city of Kokura, but it diverted to Nagaskai due to heavy cloud.
AP