Relatives mourn during a ceremony marking the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, Japan, Aug. 9, 2007. Around 5,700 people from 16 countries and regions attended the ceremony marking the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bomb blast in Nagasaki, mourning for the dead and praying for world peace. (Xinhua/Sun Wei) Photo Gallery>>>

    NAGASAKI, Japan, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Southern Japan's Nagasaki city held its regular annual ceremony at Peace Park on Thursday to mark the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing in 1945, with participating officials reiterating Japan's pledge to observe the three non-nuclear principles and continued efforts for world peace.

    In front of about 5,700 peace activists, foreign guests, Japanese officials and representatives of the bereaved families, books with 3,069 additional names were placed into the memorial, bringing the official death toll from the bombing to 143,124.

    At 11:02 a.m., the exact time of the atomic explosion here 62 years ago, people on the ceremony observed a minute's silence.

    In his address, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to abide by the pacific Constitution and to stick to the three non-nuclear principles, which states that Japan will not produce, possess or allow the entry into its territory of nuclear weapons.

    Japan will try to be a leading power in building a peaceful world without nuclear weapons, he added.

    Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue read out the annual Peace Declaration, which called on the central government to write the three non-nuclear principles into law.

    While stating that the use of nuclear weapons can never be permitted or considered acceptable, Taue said it's inappropriate for the central government to discuss the possibility of possessing nuclear arms.

    The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9,1945, killing about 70,000 people in a blink's time. World War II ended six days later.

62 years after atomic bomb, Nagasaki prays for peace 

    BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan again marked the dropping of an atomic bomb 62 years ago on one of its cities Thursday with prayers in Nagasaki and a warning from the city's mayor that the world faces a crisis of nuclear proliferation.

    Elderly survivors, dignitaries and thousands of children in the city's Peace Park bowed their heads in a minute of silence at 11:02 a.m., the time the bomb fell, in memory of the more than 140,000 who died in the blast or from related causes since. Full Story

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