Japan’s PM deplores ‘Russia’s nuclear threat’ on 78th anniversary of Hiroshima

Bonfires for the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Photograph: Jiji Press/EPA

Japan’s prime minister has hit out at Russian threats to use nuclear weapons as the country marked the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Around 140,000 people died in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and 74,000 in Nagasaki three days later, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities days before the end of World War II.