Japan marks 80 years since atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later brought a scale of destruction the world had never seen. Many who survived the blasts died in the weeks, months and years that followed. Japan surrendered six days after the Nagasaki bombing, bringing an end to World War II.

Today, the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. More than 50,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Japan. The country has fired almost no shots in anger in eight decades.

But that postwar identity is shifting.

The Japanese constitution, drafted during the U.S. occupation, renounces war as a means of settling disputes. Japan hasn't revised that pacifist charter. But the space around it has changed. Many here now perceive real and