Japan marks 65 years since Hiroshima bombing with US ambassador to Japan John Roos in attendance

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

The US ambassador to Japan, John Roos, today became the first US representative to attend an annual ceremony to honour the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Roos's presence at an event to mark 65 years since a US bomb left Hiroshima in ruins has raised hopes that president Barack Obama will visit the city when he attends a meeting of Apec leaders in Japan in November.

The mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, welcomed Washington's decision to send Roos, after it had previously turned down invitations to mark the moment a B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city on the morning of 6 August 1945.

"We need to communicate to every corner of the globe the intense yearning of the survivors for the abolition of nuclear weapons," Akiba said. "I offer my prayers to those who died. We will not make you wait for much longer [for nuclear disarmament]."

An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died from the effects of radiation in the months that followed. A further 80,000 people died after the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days later.

The US has since justified the bombings as an alternative to a potentially prolonged and costly land invasion, saying the devastation wrought on the cities forced Japan's surrender days later, on 15 August.

Some of the 55,000 people attending today's ceremony made symbolic offerings of water to the victims, as many had complained of thirst as they lay dying, while schoolchildren read out messages of peace. A single bell tolled as the city's people fell silent at 8:15am, the exact time "Little Boy" detonated.

Envoys from France and Britain – both nuclear powers – and the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also attended for the first time.

Roos did not speak at the ceremony, but said in a statement that his attendance was proof of the Obama administration's commitment to disarmament.

"For the sake of future generations, we must continue to work together to realise a world without nuclear weapons," he said.

Conservatives in the US have criticised the decision to send Roos, saying it would be misinterpreted as an act of contrition. The son of a member of the Enola Gay crew said the ambassador's visit to Hiroshima amounted to an "unspoken apology".

Gene Tibbets, whose deceased father, Brig Gen Paul Tibbets, piloted the bomber, told Fox News: "It's making the Japanese look like they're the poor people, like they didn't do anything. They hit Pearl Harbor, they struck us. We didn't slaughter the Japanese. We stopped the war."

The prospect of a first visit to Hiroshima by a sitting US president has also divided opinion in Japan.

"I'm not sure if I would welcome president Obama here," Katsuki Fujii, a college student, told Associated Press. "I don't think we have the same idea of what peace is. He seems to think some wars are good and some are bad. I think they are all bad."

Japan's long campaign to persuade the world's nuclear powers to disarm sits uneasily with its postwar dependence on the US nuclear umbrella.

The prime minister, Naoto Kan, said Japan must continue to look to its ally for security in "uncertain times" – a clear reference to the perceived threat from a nuclear North Korea.

"I think that nuclear deterrence continues to be necessary for our nation at a time when there are unclear and uncertain factors," Kan said. "We share strong hopes for nuclear disarmament, but the reality is that nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction are spreading."