The mayor of Japan's city of Hiroshima slammed the United States on Friday, the 59th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing which killed tens of thousands of people here, for continuing to develop nuclear arms."The egocentric world view of the US government is reaching extremes," mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in an address at a ceremony to mark the August 6, 1945 World War II bombing by the United States.
"Ignoring the United Nations and its foundation of international law, the United States has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more usable," the mayor said.
Meanwhile, the chain of violence and retaliation around the world showed no end, he said.
"Reliance on violence-amplifying terror and North Korea, among others, buying into the worthless policy of 'nuclear insurance' are salient symbols of our times," he said.
As the clock clicked onto 8:15 am (2315 GMT Thursday), the exact time the United States dropped the bomb, those at the ceremony bowed their heads for a minute's silence in memory of victims of the attack.
Around 140,000 people -- almost half the city population of the time -- died immediately, or in the months after the nuclear bomb, from radiation injuries or horrific burns.
The Hiroshima bombing was followed by the dropping of a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, leaving tens of thousands more dead.
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