Obama To Visit Hiroshima, Won't Apologise For World War II Bombing

Washington -The White House report said on
Tuesday that Barack Obama will become the
first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima
in Japan later this month.
The report however said that the president
will not apologise for the U.S. dropping of
an atomic bomb on the city in World War
Two.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in his
presidency in
2009 in part for his
commitment to nuclear nonproliferation,
Obama on May 27 will visit the site of the
world's first nuclear bomb attack with
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
``With the end of his last term in office
approaching in January 2017, Obama will
highlight his continued commitment to
pursuing the peace and security of a world
without nuclear weapons," the report said.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the
atomic bomb at the end of World War II.
``Instead, he will offer a forward-looking
vision focused on our shared future," U.S.
Deputy National Security Adviser, Ben
Rhodes said.
The visit comes as part of a May 20-28
swing through Asia, which will include a
Group of Seven summit in Japan and a visit
to Vietnam. It will be the 10th trip to the
region for Obama, who has tried to make a
foreign policy "pivot" toward Asia.
On the final day of the summit in Japan,
Obama and Abe will visit the Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Park near the spot where a
U.S. warplane dropped an atomic bomb 71
years ago at the end of World War Two.
There have been concerns that a U.S.
presidential visit would be controversial in
the U.S. if it were seen as an apology.
The bomb dropped on Aug. 6, 1945 killed
thousands of people instantly and about
140,000 by the end of that year.
Another was dropped on the city of
Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, and Japan
surrendered six days later.
The majority of Americans view the bombing
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as justified
ending the war and saving U.S lives, while
most Japanese see it as unjustified.
Abe, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, said he
hoped "to turn this into an opportunity for
the U.S. and Japan to pay tribute to the
memories of the victims" of the nuclear
bombing.
"President Obama visiting Hiroshima and
expressing toward the world the reality of
the impact of nuclear radiation will
contribute greatly to establishing a world
without nuclear arms," Abe added.
After U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry
visited Hiroshima last month; survivors of
the bombing and other residents said that if
Obama visits, they hope for progress in
ridding the world of nuclear weapons, rather
than an apology.
Kerry toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
and Museum, calling the museum's haunting
displays "gut-wrenching.
The displays include photographs of badly
burned victims, the tattered and stained
clothes they wore and statues depicting
them with flesh melting from their limbs.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy
also recently traveled to the city, according
to Rhodes, adding that it was the
appropriate moment" Obama to visit.