Japan marked Monday the 62nd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

The country Monday never to seek atomic weapons and urged nuclear powers to give up their own arsenals 62 years after the world's first nuclear attack.

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.

Hiroshima's Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba urged the government of Japan to do what it takes to eliminate nuclear weapons.

"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.

On Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologized for his former defence minister's suggestion that the US atomic attacks of 1945 were justified. Abe offered the apology to a group of atomic survivors.

Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma resigned in July because of the public outcry after he suggested that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified since they brought the end of World War II.

Japan has been officially pacifist since its defeat in World War II and turned into one of the closest US allies, hosting more than 40,000 US troops.

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