70th anniversary  of Hiroshima bombing day 

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hiroshima Thursday to mark 70 years since the atomic bombing that helped end World War II but still divides opinion today over whether the total destruction it caused was justified.

Bells tolled as a solemn crowd observed a moment of silence at 8:15 am local time (2315 GMT), when the detonation turned the western Japanese city into an inferno, killing thousands instantly and leaving others to die a slow death with horrible injuries.

Children, elderly survivors and delegates representing 100 countries were in attendance with many placing flowers in front of the cenotaph at Peace Memorial Park in downtown Hiroshima.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US ambassador Caroline Kennedy, and under-secretary for arms control Rose Gottemoeller, the most senior Washington official ever sent to the service, were in attendance.

“As the only country ever attacked by an atomic bomb... we have a mission to create a world without nuclear arms,” Abe told the crowd.

“We have been tasked with conveying the inhumanity of nuclear weapons, across generations and borders.”

The premier said his country would submit a fresh resolution to abolish nuclear weapons at the UN general assembly later this year.

This year’s memorial comes just days ahead of the scheduled restart of a nuclear reactor in southern Japan—the first one to go back on line after two years of complete hiatus following the tsunami-sparked disaster at Fukushima in 2011.

While Abe’s government has pushed to switch reactors back on, public opposition to atomic power remains high after Fukushima, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

Abe, a strident nationalist, has also been criticised at home for his efforts to expand the role of pacifist Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, changes that could open the door to putting troops into combat for the first time since the end of the war.

The moves caused a fresh stir as defense minister Gen Nakatani admitted Wednesday that new security laws being debated in parliament could—in theory—allow for Japan to transport nuclear weapons to allies. He quickly dismissed that idea as unlikely, however.