BY THE NUMBERS: The atomic bombing of Hiroshima

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who attended the ceremony at Hiroshima’s peace park, said that that atomic bomb not only killed thousands of people in Hiroshima but also caused very bad suffering to survivors. Japan will submit a fresh resolution on the abolition of atomic weapons to the United Nations General Assembly in the autumn, he said.

About 55,000 people attended the ceremony, including survivors of the attack, their descendants, peace activists and representatives from about 100 countries and regions. This is consistent with his statement two years ago, for the abolition of nuclear weapons, as HNGN covered.

The anniversary comes as Japan is divided over Mr Abe’s push to pass unpopular legislation to expand the country’s military role internationally.

By the end of the year, some 140,000, including tens of thousands of Koreans and other non-Japanese, had died due to the bombing and its after-effects.

“My peace declaration will call on leaders around the world, including Japan, to stop taking actions that could cause mistrust in each other” and ultimately lead to nuclear warfare, Mr Matsui said.

After a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, the surrender of Japan was announced on 15 August.

Addressing students at the Moscow State Institute of worldwide Relations, Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said an global tribunal should be set up to prosecute those responsible for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. It may be 70 years later, but the legacy of that bomb remains. There were 5,359 hibakusha who died over the past year, bringing the total death toll from the Hiroshima bombing to 297,684.

Dropping the bombs, which were developed under strict secrecy, was hugely popular with war-weary Americans at the time – and 70 years on, a majority today still think it was the right thing to do. He plans to issue a statement marking the anniversary of the war’s end next week, which critics fear will dilute past official apologies. Moving the U.S. closer in policy and perspective to Japan would help to accomplish the abolition of nuclear weapons.

He also criticised nuclear powers for still using the bombs as threats to achieve their national interests.

But the deal has run into some opposition in the US Congress, which is due to vote on it.

Plans for an invasion were drawn up, but with casualty numbers purely among their own troops estimated at 1.7 to 4 million, Allied leaders sought a different solution – and with the successful testing in July of “the Gadget”, the atomic bomb created by the Manhattan Project, they found one.