Today is the 62nd anniversary of the world’s first use of atomic weapons against human beings:

JAPAN vowed today never to seek atomic weapons and urged nuclear powers to give up their own arsenals 62 years after the world’s first nuclear attack on Hiroshima.

Some 45,000 people recited silent prayers at 8.15am (9.15am AEST), the exact moment in 1945 when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns.

“I have strengthened my determination not to repeat this tragedy,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a speech in the western city.

“I want to renew my promise to maintain the non-nuclear principles,” Mr Abe said, referring to Japan’s policy of refusing to possess, produce or allow the entry of nuclear weapons on its soil.

Here are a few documentarties about Hiroshima that are up on Google Video:

BBC’s Days That Shook The World: Hiroshima (50 Minutes):

A discussion with historian Martin Sherwin about the Hiroshima Bombings from an episode of the Charlie Rose (57 minutes, with only part of the show about Hiroshima):

Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor John Dower gives a talk about the historical and cultural forces behind the Japanese attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, the United States dropping on an A-bomb on the Japanese at Hiroshima, and the attack on the United States by Osama Bin Laden’s supporters on 9/11 (1.5 hours):