In the final analysis, however, Obama’s visit to Hiroshima will wrap up his presidency in the most positive of ways. Nor have denizens of the faculty lounge come to grips with the number of lives of hundreds of thousands of USA soldiers that would have been lost in a conventional invasion of mainland Japan.
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“But the backdrop of a nuclear event remains something that presses on the back of our imagination”. Japan surrendered less than 10 days later.
“The dropping of the atomic bomb, the ushering in of nuclear weapons, was an inflection point in modern history”, Obama said with a view to Friday’s visit. Current ambassador Caroline Kennedy has also visited, as did Secretary of State John Kerry in April.
According to the figures it’s the fourth straight year of growth, an increase of 104,531 worldwide visitors over 2014.
People gather around the gutted Atomic Bomb Dome at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, southwestern Japan, Thursday, May 26, 2016.
In 2012, the last remaining house was dedicated “Schmoe House” as a branch of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. And there are growing worries about the security of nuclear fuel sites around the world. But when he took the podium, Kerry went off script and spoke from the heart.
“Things happened before I was born”, he said, “but it’s something that should never been forgotten”.
Obama said he is going to Hiroshima, to remark again “the very real risks that are out there”. I was very, very pleased to see the president’s announcement.
Do you think President Obama should apologize? “What we have done not only has inflicted tremendous damage on the Japanese, it also has done tremendous damage on the (American) people when we don’t remember what we have done”. Jimmy Carter visited as a former president in 1984.
The president’s visit shines an even brighter spotlight on what’s already one of the most popular tourist attractions in Japan.
“Ambassadors Ross and Kennedy made this about a human gesture and not a historical judgment”.
“National memories about the Second World War have become more rigid and politicized in recent years, “Uchiyama said”.
The president is someone who has the way of articulating and striking the right tone and the right words in this type of sensitive situation. During World War II, American forces dropped an atomic bomb called “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, which directly killed 74,000 soldiers and civilians there. The apologies that Japanese prime ministers voiced in the 1990s for Japan’s crimes in the 1930s and 1940s provoked a nationalist backlash and public controversy as much as they did greater national contrition.
“This is not an issue after 70 years”, Tsukada said.
The G-7 gathering dovetails in many ways with Abe’s long-term diplomatic, political and economic agenda.
“I believe in at least showing the Japanese that we care because they are now our good allies”. We have to pass this message to properly learn this lesson. That to me was one of the most moving moments.
Hiroshima was the first city in the world to be targeted by a nuclear weapon.
“It’s something that we’ve put at the centre of discussions and negotiations with China”, Obama said.
The visit comes at a time when the alliance between the USA and Japan is facing numerous challenges, mainly because of the rise of China and the fluid global strategic environment. “So to stand up and talk about a nuclear free world would look like a naïve, fuzzy sweater, Mr. Rogers moment that would not be well received and elicit criticism at home”.
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“I don’t think his apology is necessary”, said Sumida, 69, of Hiroshima, who was born after the US dropped the bomb.
