Nagasaki marks anniversary of A-bomb attack

(August 10, 2012) Japanese officials pledged to seek a society less reliant on nuclear energy as the country marked the 67th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Thursday. About 6,000 people gathered at a peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 blast, including students and the mayor of one of the towns most affected by last year's nuclear plant disaster. Almost a year and half after the world's second worst accident at a nuclear power plant, concerns about the safety of nuclear energy and radiation effects persist. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue said the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which was crippled by a tsunami last year in March, has exposed the risk of nuclear technology. Taue urged Japan to make concrete plans to achieve a nuclear-free society and called for renewed commitment to a global ban on nuclear weapons. ``Many people in Fukushima still live in fear of radiation effects,'' Taue said. On Aug. 6, 1945, the United Sates dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima that destroyed most of the city and killed as many as 140,000 people. A second atomic bomb unleashed on Aug. 9 on Nagasaki killed tens of thousands more and prompted Japan to surrender to the World War II Allies.