Nagasaki Commemorates 68th Anniversary of US Atomic Bombing
Nagasaki Commemorates 68th Anniversary of US Atomic Bombing - Reuters

Japanese city of Nagasaki marks the 68<sup>th anniversary of US's atomic bombing that took place during World War II resulting in the death of thousands of people.

Tens of thousands of people got in Nagasaki, the last city in the world to undergo nuclear attack till today, marked the anniversary in memory of the victims.

Ailing survivors of the attack, government authorities, and all others observed a moment of silence at 11:02am local time, the exact time of the bombing.

"We hold the responsibility to realize a world free of nuclear weapons and pass on to the next generation and to the world the inhumane nature," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the ceremony.

The anniversary comes three days after Hiroshima observed 68 years of atomic blast. Both attacks put together killed no less than 2,00,000 people instantaneously and also responsible for deaths of thousands of others due to radiation poisoning.

Marking the occasion, Tomihisa Taue, Mayor of Nagasaki urged Tokyo administration to sign agreement denouncing nuclear weapons.

Urging the federal government to declared nuclear weapons as "inhumane", Taue said in his declaration address at the city's Peace Park, "This stance contradicts the resolution that Japan would never allow anyone else to become victims of a nuclear bombing."

Japan did not sign the joint declaration during the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference held in Geneva earlier this year.

In signing the treaty, Taue insisted, "I call on the Japanese government to consider once again that Japan is the only country to have suffered a nuclear bombing."

He added the failure to reject the use of nuclear weapons is "betraying the expectations of global society [and] implies that the government would approve of their use under some circumstances".