The 71st anniversary of an atomic bomb being dropped on the city of Hiroshima was observed Saturday across Japan.

Bells tolled in remembrance of the 140-thousand people killed in the 1945 bombing. Another 70-thousand were killed three days later when an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

The bombings by the U-S forced Japan to surrender, ending World War II.

Japan marked the occasion Saturday by renewing its call for a world free of nuclear weapons.