Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima yesterday, more than seven decades after the United States dropped the first wartime atom bomb on the city.
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US President Barack Obama stands after laying a wreath at Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, May 27, 2016.
Obama said that “71 years ago on a bright, cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed”.
Standing in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Friday, President Obama invoked the “silent cry” of all of those killed by the first nuclear weapon ever dropped in war. Obama embraces atomic-bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori.
After meeting the president, Tsuboi said he was surprised by how Obama held his hand and listened intently.
Mr Obama went out of his way, in speaking of the dead, to mention that thousands of Koreans and a dozen American prisoners were among those who died.
U.S. President Barack Obama underlined “humanity’s core contradiction” of war in Hiroshima, Japan on Friday, pointing out that despite the teachings of love and and peace by all of the world’s great religions, they all have believers that claim their faith as a “licence to kill”. About 70,000 people were killed three days later when the USA dropped another atomic bomb called “Fat Man” on the coastal city of Nagasaki.
Some 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima near the end of World War II when the US dropped at atomic bomb on the western Japanese city.
Obama hoped Hiroshima would someday be remembered not as the dawn of the atomic age but as the beginning of a “moral awakening”.
It’s that stance that helped Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
“I couldn’t see him at all so at least I wanted to get a picture of the wreath”, said Hiroshima local Kana Kamioka, a 30-something shop employee. Up until that point the US was not officially involved in the war raging across the Pacific.
“Coming to visit Hiroshima as the current president of the United States, that means a lot”, she said. It wasn’t until the final months of his presidency that it seemed that a trip would both fulfil his goal to stress again his push for a world free of nuclear weapons and his desire to make a series of historic trips as he looks to add final chapters to his legacy.
Mr Obama spoke briefly with five survivors of the atomic bombing who had attended the ceremony along with their families.
Abe, in his speech, called Obama’s visit courageous and long-awaited. Obama arrived at Hiroshima’s memorial park on Friday.
“The most important thing we can do is recognize what happened, and understand the disgusting consequences of war”, Frechette said.
Obama was in Japan this week to attend the Group of Seven leaders’ conference in Ise-Shima, about 300 miles away.
Retiree Tsuguo Yoshikawa took a walk in the park, and said it’s time for the USA and Japanese people to move forward without grudges. “I want him to understand our sufferings”.
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His choreographed visit will be parsed by people with many agendas.
