Japan marks 61st anniversary of US atomic attack on Hiroshima

HIROSHIMA -- The mayor of Hiroshima on Sunday called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons as he marked the 61st anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, which killed more than 140,000 people in the Japanese city.
Expressing concerns over the global proliferation of nuclear weapons, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba urged the government of Japan -- the only nation to suffer atomic bomb attacks -- to take a leading role in the effort to eliminate nuclear arsenals.
'Sixty-one years have passed since radiation, heat rays and an atomic blast created hell on earth,' Akiba said in a speech at Hiroshima Peace Park, near the bomb's epicenter. 'But the number of nations enamored of evil and enslaved by nuclear arms has increased. The only role nuclear weapons have is to be demolished.'
A bell rang at 8:15 a.m., marking the time when the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. It was the first atomic bomb ever used in war.