Update | Obama makes history by becoming first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima on May 27, the first city in history to suffer from an atomic bomb attack
US leader’s visit to drive home desire for a world free of nuclear weapons; White House says no apologies for attack in World War Two
US President Barack Obama will make the first visit to Hiroshima by a sitting US head of state on May 27 to renew his resolve to seek a world free of nuclear weapons, both governments said Tuesday.
Officials from the Japanese and US governments said the purpose of Obama’s planned trip to the atomic-bombed city will be to promote a future-oriented stance on nuclear disarmament rather than for the US leader to apologise for the nuclear attacks 71 years ago.
The US president’s visit to Hiroshima with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will “highlight (Obama’s) continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the White House said in a statement.
Abe said he welcomes the US president’s visit to the Japanese city devastated by a 1945 US atomic bomb in the final days of World War II “from the bottom of my heart” as a big step toward realising a world free of nuclear weapons.
“I believe that President Obama making a trip to Hiroshima, seeing the reality of the consequences of atomic bombings and expressing his feeling to the world, will be a big force toward a world without nuclear weapons,” Abe told reporters.