Abe rips official for A-bomb comment

Japan's prime minister sternly reprimanded his defense minister on Monday for saying the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were an inevitable way of ending World War II, and asked him to refrain from making similar remarks.

Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he told Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma to "strictly refrain from making remarks that cause misunderstanding."

"Japan is the only country that suffered an atomic bombing. We need to always consider and stand in the position of the survivors," Abe said he told Kyuma.

The defense minister's comments offended survivors of the bombings who believe the use of atomic weapons was excessive, but the minister is not expected to resign.

"I want Minister Kyuma to seriously consider the gravity of his remarks and, having reflected on them, work toward nuclear disarmament," Abe said.

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II, in the world's only nuclear attacks.

"I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped," Kyuma said in a speech at a university in Chiba, just east of Tokyo.

Kyuma, who is from Nagasaki, said the bombing caused great suffering in the city but said he did not resent the U.S. because the bombs prevented the Soviet Union from entering the war with Japan, according to Kyodo News agency.

Kyuma said if Japan had not surrendered, northern Japan could have been occupied by the Soviet Union, which had begun invading Manchuria on the same day Nagasaki was attacked, according to Japanese media.

The remarks, rare for a Japanese Cabinet minister, were quickly criticized by atomic bomb victims.

Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue reportedly called the bombings the "indiscriminate massacre of ordinary citizens" and the opposition Social Democratic Party called for Kyuma's dismissal.

Five survivor groups in Nagasaki have sent a letter of protest to the Defense Ministry saying they will not allow Kyuma to attend this year's memorial on Aug. 9, which he has been attending every year.

About 90 people staged a sit-in protest at Nagasaki Peace Park Monday, according to organizers.

Kyodo said about 160 people staged protests in Hiroshima.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped a bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 people in the world's first atomic bomb attack. Three days later it dropped another atomic bomb, "Fat Man," on Nagasaki where about 74,000 are estimated to have been killed.

Japan, which had attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.