Updated

The U.S. has sent its first representative to the annual memorial for the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, as the Japanese city remembered the historic horrors of radiation amid the nation's unfolding nuclear crisis.

As in past years, a moment of silence was observed at 11:02 a.m. Tuesday, 66 years after the moment the bomb dropped on the southern city on Aug. 9, 1945, in the closing days of World War II.

Mayor Tomihisa Taue called for change in Japan's policy, which has for decades vehemently pursued nuclear power and asked the nation work to develop safer kinds of energy.

The U.S. sent its first representative to the memorial, Charge d'Affaires James P. Zumwalt.