President Barack Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit the site of the US atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima, Japan, the White House said Tuesday.
Advertisement
Critics, including many conservative news outlets, have called a visit unnecessary and framed a potential trip by Obama as an apology for an act that helped bring the war started by Japan to a quicker end, saving lives of US service members.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes wrote in a separate blog.
The visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park will take place after Obama and other leaders of the Group of Seven major advanced economies hold summit talks in the city of Ise-Shima on May 26-27.
Survivors of the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and local government officials generally welcomed the announcement but some said he should have visited the atom-bombed city earlier, rather than in the final stage of his eight-year tenure.
The U.S. attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people.
With the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, the U.S. national security policy remains as one that allows “preemptive” use of the weapons.
Only months ahead of the November presidential election, Mr. Obama’s trip to Hiroshima is fraught with serious risks – to his own legacy and the chances of the Democratic nominee. Fifty-six percent of Americans said the bombings were justified; only 14 percent of Japanese said they were justified.
Earnest said details have yet to be decided about Obama’s stay in Hiroshima, such as whether he will go to the Peace Memorial Museum, which displays artifacts and graphic photos of the atomic-bomb victims. What President Obama will do is make note of the fact that the relationship between the United States and Japan has emerged stronger than anybody could have imagined back in 1945..
Already the White House has ruled out an apology for the bombings, saying Mr Obama is not prepared to revisit the original decision to drop the bomb. Three days later, the USA dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, which killed about 80,000 people. The White House made it clear that Pres. Obama will not offer an apology to the prime minister, nor will he get into discussions about the past.
Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action, a U.S.-based group, said Obama should use the visit to announce specific steps to “bring the world closer to being free of nuclear weapons”, such as reducing the number of nuclear warheads in reserve. It’s his first trip to the Southeast Asian country, which he’ll be the third American president in a row to visit.
During his first visit to Japan, in November 2009, Mr Obama said that he wished to visit the site.
Advertisement
Jimmy Carter visited the city, but after the end of his presidency.
