Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urges Japan to sign UN treaty banning nuclear weapons

The mayor of Hiroshima urged Japan to sign a landmark UN treaty banning nuclear weapons as the city today marked 74 years since being targeted in the world's first atomic attack.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led commemorations at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima as residents offered silent prayers, lit candles and placed wreathes to remember those killed in the August 6, 1945 bombing.

Mayor Kazumi Matsui



used the occasion to push the Abe administration to sign the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, approved by more than 120 nations, but rejected by the US and other nuclear armed countries.

Japan remains the only country to have experienced atomic attack -- against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, days ahead of the country's surrender on August 15, 1945 to end World War II.