Japan marks 71st anniversary of US atomic bombing of Hiroshima

Japan is today marking the 71st anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, as its Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to follow United States President Barack Obama's footsteps and visit, and ultimately free the world from nuclear arms.

About 50,000 participants, including aging survivors and dignitaries, held a moment of silence at a memorial ceremony in the western Japanese city.

The United States dropped the bomb on Hiroshima on August, 6th, 1945, killing thousands of people instantly and about 140,000 by the end of that year.

At the ceremony, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged his determination to work toward a world free of nuclear arms.

Obama in May paid tribute to 140,000 people killed by the world's first atomic bomb attack that was dropped by the U.S. to force Japan's capitulation in World War II. Another atomic bombing three days after Hiroshima killed more than 70,000 people in Nagasaki.

Obama this year became the first incumbent US President to visit Hiroshima, and he urged nuclear powers, including his own, to have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without nuclear weapons.