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Bells tolled as a solemn crowd observed a moment of silence at 8.15am local time, when the detonation turned the western Japanese city into an inferno, killing thousands instantly and leaving others to die a slow death with terrible injuries.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hiroshima yesterday 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.

As the only country to have experienced nuclear bombs – Nagasaki was attacked three days later – Japan has a special duty to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons, Abe told the audience after a minute’s silence. On that day in 1945, the US Air Force...