Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan has taken his campaign against nuclear energy in Japan to Hiroshima, which became the world's first victim of an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.
On the 66th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing, people prayed for the victims during a ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.
Protesters also took to the streets as they marched at an anti-nuclear rally in Hiroshima, a city that has now started questioning its long embrace of nuclear energy's peaceful use, Reuters reported.
On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki in Japan became the world’s second city to have been attacked by atomic bomb.
Start the slideshow to view some old pictures of the bombing that shook Japan in 1945.
Smoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over Nagasaki from an atomic bomb, the second ever used in warfare, dropped from a B-29 Superfortress bomber in this U.S. Air Force handout photo dated August 9, 1945. REUTERS/Ho NewThe ground crew of the B-29 "Enola Gay" which atom-bombed Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 poses for a photo with the aircraft at their base in Tinian, Mariana Islands in this undated U.S. Air Force handout image. Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot, stands in the center.REUTERS/Ho NewSmoke billows 20,000 feet above Hiroshima following the explosion of the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare in this U.S. Air Force handout photo dated Aug. 6, 1945. Two planes of the 509th Composite Group, part of the 313th Wing of the 20th Air Force, participated in this mission; one to carry the bomb, and the other to act as escort. REUTERS/Ho NewThe Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" lands at the Tinian airbase in the Mariana Islands after the atomic bombing mission on Hiroshima, Japan in this U.S. Air Force handout photo dated August 6, 1945. REUTERS/Ho NewColonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, waves from his cockpit before takeoff from Tinian on August 6,1945 in this handout photo courtesy of the U.S. National Archives.REUTERS/Ho NewSmoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over Nagasaki from an atomic bomb, the second ever used in warfare, dropped from a B-29 Superfortress bomber in this U.S. Air Force handout photo dated August 9, 1945.REUTERS/Ho NewUndated handout photo courtesy of the U.S. National Archives shows the aftermath of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9,1945. A Roman Catholic cathedral can be seen on the hill in the background. REUTERS/Ho NewColonel Paul Tibbetts poses in front of his B-29 Superfortress "The Enola Gay" (named for his mother) in this undated U.S. Air Force handout photo. The Enola Gay is the same plane he piloted when his bombardier dropped the first atom bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. REUTERS/Ho New
