Hiroshima marks 81st atomic bomb anniversary

Hiroshima on Thursday marked the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the western Japanese city.

About 50,000 people, including representatives from some 120 countries and regions including the US and Iran, were to attend the ceremony.

A minute of silence was held while a peace bell rang out at 8:15 a.m., the time when a U.S. B-29 dropped the bomb on the city.

On August 6th, 1945, during World War II, the US B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, destroying the city and resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths.

A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000. Japan surrendered on August 15th, ending World War II and Japan's nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

The number of survivors has fallen to 91,105, about a quarter of the original number, with their average age exceeding 86.

In a speech marking the 81st anniversary of the bombing, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said "downplaying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and accepting the use of force to pursue one's own prosperity risk cycles of violent retaliation that could ultimately result in another Hiroshima or Nagasaki."

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who attended the memorial for the first time as the country's leader said she will take "a realistic approach" toward achieving a world where nuclear weapons are never used.

This year's ceremony comes at a time of looming speculation that Takaichi's hawkish government, which supports the idea of nuclear deterrence, may ease Japan's postwar three non-nuclear principles when it compiles new security and defence documents later this year.

Takaichi said Japan has maintained its postwar three non-nuclear principles, but fell short of expressing commitment for sticking with that policy into the future.