Hiroshima marks 74th anniversary of US atomic bombing

Hiroshima on Tuesday marked the 74th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city with its mayor renewing calls for eliminating such weapons.

Mayor Kazumi Matsui raised concerns in his peace address on Tuesday about the rise of self-centered politics in the world and urged leaders to steadily work toward achieving a world without atomic weapons.

He demanded Japan's government represent the wills of atomic bombing survivors and sign a UN nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Hiroshima is stepping up efforts to keep the memories of the calamity alive, as the survivors of the bombing, known as hibakusha, get older. 

In April, the city's Peace Memorial Museum overhauled an exhibit of memorabilia from the bombing for the first time in 28 years.

Blast from the past  

The US attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people. The bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed another 70,000 before Japan's surrender ended World War II.

The Hiroshima anniversary ceremony came hours after North Korea launched projectiles into the sea. Its recent weapons tests follow a stalemate in negotiations over its nuclear weapons.

INF expiry 

The event comes amid growing uncertainty over prospects for achieving a nuclear-free world. A landmark nuclear arms control treaty, signed three decades ago between the US and the former Soviet Union, expired last Friday. 

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, was an important pillar of nuclear disarmament.