Japan has united to remember the 74,000 killed and 75,000 wounded when an atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the attack.
Thousands of paper lanterns were lit at a poignant vigil at the Nagasaki Peace Park to remember the lives lost when United States planes attacked the city on August 9, 1945.
An image of the mushroom cloud created by the blast was projected onto the Urakami Cathedral which was destroyed in the bombing and rebuilt in 1949.
The U.S. also bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima just three days before, killing 140,000. The twin attacks were the first and only time atomic bombs have been used on a civilian population.
Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, brought an end to the Second World War.
Some historians argue the bombs prevented more casualties in a planned land invasion but others say they were unnecessary because Japan was already heading for defeat.
One of the tens of thousands to survive the atomic blast in Nagasaki today revealed the horrific wounds that cover his body.
Sumitery Taniguchi, 86, was 16 when the bomb incinerated thousands of the city's buildings and people - and left survivors with lifelong scars.
The five-tonne plutonium bomb, known as the ‘Fat Man’, exploded 500m above his home city of Nagasaki on the western side on the Japanese island of Kyushu.
His back is covered in a cross-hatch of wounds and three of his ribs rotted away in the wake of the attack.
Mr Taniguchi revealed his scars as part of his charitable work with other survivors - in the hope that no one else suffers the pain he has.
Wall clocks that stopped working at 11.02am, when the explosion occurred 70 years ago, are displayed at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.
The city was one of Japan’s most important ports, providing vital access to and from Shanghai.
The touching vigil held in the regenerated city came three days after tens of thousands gathered to mark 70 years since Hiroshima was also bombed.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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