Japan on Sunday marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki that claimed more than 74,000 lives, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came under fire for his attempts to expand the military's role.

Bells tolled and tens of thousands of people, including aging survivors and the relatives of victims, observed a minute's silence at 11:02 am (0202 GMT), the moment the bomb from a U.S. plane devastated the port city on August 9, 1945.

Japan's premier Shinzo Abe was heckled Tuesday at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest episode in the Pacific War, as anger flared over the U.S. military's continuing presence.

In a highly charged ceremony on Okinawa, Abe was shouted at by locals angry at the size of the United States' presence on the subtropical islands.

Seventy years after the Battle of Okinawa, Yoshiko Shimabukuro still has terrifying nightmares of watching friends and Japanese soldiers die as they hid in caves to escape fierce American shelling.

One of 222 female students mobilized as a battlefield nursing unit for the Imperial Army in March 1945, she also suffers deep pangs of guilt for surviving the war while many of her classmates perished in the hell holes that served as military hospitals on the island's southern tip.

Tens of thousands marked the 69th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Saturday, as the city's pacifist mayor urged the Japanese government to listen to increasing concerns over controversial plans to expand the role of its military.

Crowds gathered to remember the more than 70,000 people who died in the initial blast or from after-effects in the months and years following the bombing, which hit Nagasaki at 11:02 am local time (0202 GMT).

Tens of thousands of people gathered for peace ceremonies in Hiroshima on Wednesday, marking the 69th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city, as anti-nuclear sentiment runs high in Japan.

Bells tolled as aging survivors, relatives, government officials and foreign delegates observed a moment of silence in the rain at 8:15 am local time (2315 GMT), when the detonation turned the western Japanese city into an inferno.

U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy has visited the Japanese city of Nagasaki, site of the Aug. 9, 1945, American atomic bomb attack that killed 70,000 people and helped prompt Japan's surrender in World War II.

The daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy toured Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Museum on Tuesday and met with some atomic bomb survivors. At the city's Peace Park she was to help plant an American dogwood tree, one of 3,000 offered as a gift of friendship to Japan.

Nagasaki on Friday marked the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing by the United States during World War II that turned the Japanese city into an inferno.

Tens of thousands gathered to remember the more than 70,000 people who died instantly in the blast, or of the after-effects in the months and years after the bombing, which hit Nagasaki at 11:02 am local time (0202 GMT).