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Tokyo: Japan on Saturday called on world powers to abandon their nuclear weapons as the country held a solemn ceremony to remember the victims of the Nagasaki bombing.
Thousands bowed their heads in a minute of silence at Japan's Peace Park to remember the tens of thousands who ultimately died from the blast.
"The United States and Russia must take the lead in striving to abolish nuclear weapons," Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue said at the gathering.
"These two countries ... should begin implementing broad reductions of nuclear weapons instead of deepening their conflict over, among others, the introduction of a missile-defence system in Europe," Taue said.
Britain, France and China should also reduce their nuclear arms, he added.
The United States bombed Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 during the Second World War.
The city's estimated 200,000 population died instantly from the bomb, while another 70,000 died by the end of 1945.
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