TOKYO (AP) – After being taught that atomic bombs are inhumane and awful, high school student Kaho Matsuki’s first reaction when she heard U.S. President Barack Obama would visit the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima was that he should apologize for America’s use of the weapons.
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Obama will go to Hiroshima, the site of a US atomic bombing in August 6, 1945, on May 27 with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after attending a two-day Group of Seven summit in the city of Shima, Mie Prefecture, some 400 km east of Hiroshima.
While in Vietnam, Obama plans to visit Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where he will discuss “a wide range of areas, including economic, people-to-people, security, human rights, and global and regional issues”, according to a press release from the White House. Instead, the USA president will present a “forward-looking vision” of a world without nuclear weapons.
Japan’s neighbors in China and South Korea will also be watching the visit closely, always eager to make sure that their once hyper-aggressive foe is not allowed to play the role of a World War II victim.
Diverging views about an act that forever changed war have made a visit from a sitting USA president a delicate and arguably politically risky move.
“We are not asking for an apology”, Tsuboi said.
However, the president also made it clear that the visit is not about apology. This would be a first step toward abolishing nuclear weapons..
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue said he respected Obama for what he saw as a tough decision.
“I hope that here in Hiroshima he will conceive concrete steps towards a nuclear-free world”, said city mayor Kazumi Matsui.
“It is an extremely significant and historic event to promote worldwide discussions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons”, he said.
“Obama will look insincere if his words espouse ridding the world of nuclear weapons while at the same time his administration continues its plan to spend a trillion dollars over 30 years to upgrade nuclear weapons”, Martin said in a statement.
Officials say that the visit was “hotly debated” among White House officials, with many fearing Obama would face a backlash from Americans for even the perception that he was apologizing for the nuclear attack.
The visit will come at a particularly sensitive time.
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“He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II”, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes wrote in a post on Medium.
