Japan has marked the 71st anniversary of the US military’s deadly atomic bombing of the western city of Hiroshima, which still bears the scars of the disaster.

Japan has marked the 71st anniversary of the US military’s deadly atomic bombing of the western city of Hiroshima, which still bears the scars of the disaster.

A peace bell tolled at 8:15 a.m. local time on Saturday (2315 GMT on Friday), the time a US B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb that exploded some 600 meters (1,800 feet) above the city.

About 50,000 took part in the memorial service and held a moment of silence for the tragedy in Hiroshima.

During the memorial ceremony, Mayor Kazumi Matsui renewed calls for a nuclear weapons free world, urging countries with such arms to “have the courage to escape the logic of fear, and pursue a world without them.”

He further recalled a recent visit by US President Barack Obama to Hiroshima and called on world leaders to make similar visits to the sites of the disaster, saying such trips “will surely etch the reality of the atomic bombings in each heart.”

“It is the time for us to make actions towards the abolition of the 'absolute evil', the ultimate form of inhumanity, united and with passion,” he added.

The mayor further warned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe against his controversial push to revise the country’s pacifist constitution that would allow the military to engage in wars overseas for the first time since the World War II.

On August 4, Japan released previously-undisclosed of footage showing the immediate aftermath of the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagazaki.