Today thousands of Japanese will remember what their fellow countrymen in the southern city of Nagasaki went through 60 years ago when they faced a wartime nuclear attack that turned it into an inferno, instantly killing tens of thousands of people - and hastening the end of World War II.

In Nagasaki, as the bells rang, over 6,000 people gathered at a commemorating ceremony, including hundreds of A-bomb survivors, and silently prayed for the estimated 80,000 who died on that day, and the tens of thousands more who later succumbed to radiation-related diseases. There were mixed feelings of sadness, disappointment, regret and hatred filled among them, with only a few managing to express them openly.

We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Yet, is your security actually enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons, of carrying out repeated sub-critical nuclear tests, and of pursuing the development of new miniature nuclear weapons?
- Itchoh Ito, Mayor of Nagasaki

Nagasaki became the target of the second nuclear bomb dropped by Enola Gay, while the first A-bomb struck Hiroshima 3 days ago (Aug 6) creating utter devastation and ultimately totaling up to approximately 214,000 human lives in the two cities.

The A-bomb dropped in Nagasaki was the second and last nuclear bomb used by humans against humans. It ushered in the nuclear age and its consequences extended from ending the war to destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and also generating a long-term life threat to inhabitants. Those who managed to survive that ordeal are now speaking on behalf of the souls of the victims, demanding that Nagasaki be the world's last site of an atomic bombing. And I'm sure that most of us would wish exactly the same.