Hiroshima survivors tell pope of attack 'hell'

Survivors of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima told Pope Francis on Sunday of the "scene of hell" after the bombing, as the pontiff hit out against the use of the weapons.

The pope began his four-day trip to Japan with stops in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to those affected by the two bombs dropped by US forces in 1945 at the end of World War II.

In Hiroshima, Francis met several survivors of the attack, who echoed his calls for the world never to forget the atrocity of the bombings.

Yoshiko Kajimoto was 14 years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing at least 140,000 people.

"When I went outside, all the surrounding buildings were destroyed. It was dark as evening and smelled like rotten fish," she told the pope at the Peace Memorial in the city.

Her eyes closed tight and her voice trembling occasionally, she described people "walking side by side like ghosts, people whose whole body was so burnt that I could not tell the difference between men and women."