Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hiroshima this morning to mark the 62nd anniversary of the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city. An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the bombing. Three days later, another U.S. airplane dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. At 8:15 this morning, bells rang through the city to mark the moment when the U.S. B-29 warplane Enola Gay dropped the bomb. Residents throughout the city observed a minute’s silence in memory of those who perished. Earlier today, Hiroshima Mayor Tadayoshi Akiba spoke at the rally and criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s backing of President Bush’s foreign policy.

Tadayoshi Akiba: “We should adhere strictly to our Peace Constitution, which we should be proud of, and say clearly 'no' to the U.S.’s outdated and mistaken policies in the world.”