HIROSHIMA (AFP) - Japan vowed on Monday never to seek atomic weapons and urged nuclear powers to give up their own arsenals 62 years after the world's first nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
Some 45,000 people recited silent prayers at 8:15 am, the exact moment in 1945 when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns.
"I have strengthened my determination not to repeat this tragedy," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a speech in the western city.
"I want to renew my promise to maintain the non-nuclear principles," Abe said, referring to Japan's policy of refusing to possess, produce or allow the entry of nuclear weapons on its soil.
Some of the conservative premier's top aides last year called for Japan to at least study going nuclear after arch-rival North Korea tested an atomic bomb.
Going nuclear is sacrilege to many people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was also flattened by a nuclear bomb that killed another 70,000 people in the final days of World War II.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba on the anniversary denounced nuclear powers for maintaining their weapons, mentioning the United States by name.
"Human beings are still faced with the crisis of destruction because a limited number of outdated leaders turn their back on the reality of the atomic bombings and the messages of survivors," Akiba said.
"The government of Japan," he said, "must say no to the policy of the United States, which is outdated and a mistake."
Japan has been officially pacifist since its defeat in World War II and turned into one of the closest US allies, hosting more than 40,000 US troops.
Abe has vowed to rewrite the US-imposed pacifist constitution, although his plans received a major setback last week when his party lost key elections.