The U.S. government announced Tuesday that Obama will visit Hiroshima on May 27 to highlight his renewed commitment to pursuing a world without nuclear weapons, becoming the first sitting U.S. head of state to set foot in the city devastated by a U.S. atomic bombing in World War II.
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Obama’s call for a nuclear-free world echoes the message delivered by former President Jimmy Carter when he visited Hiroshima in 1984 and pledged to work as a private citizen “to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the earth”. The bombings scarred generations of Japanese, both physically and mentally, but many Americans believe they hastened the end of World War II and saved countless other lives. He’ll meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and offer remarks at a park memorializing victims of the atomic bombing, according to White House officials. Some 140,000 people – majority civilians – were killed, and others endure after-effects to this day. A second bomb, dropped on Nagasaki three days later, killed 70,000.
A poll released this week by national broadcaster NHK found that 70 percent of Japanese want Obama to visit Hiroshima, and only 2 percent were opposed. “I want to go to Hiroshima and meet him”. In the letter, the association asks Obama to pay his respects before a memorial stone to Korean victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and to acknowledge the Korean victims of the bomb, launch an investigation, offer an apology and provide compensation.
“It is an extremely significant and historic event to promote global discussions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons”, he said.
President Obama speaking about the economy in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC.
“But that’s not what President Obama will do when he visits Hiroshima”, Earnest said. If Japan hadn’t been trying, then it might make sense.
Oishi, who has been conveying his experience to schools and elsewhere in the hope of abolishing nuclear weapons, said he can not easily put into words his feelings against the United States, but added, “I think there is a need to think about atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs from a viewpoint that there is a moral responsibility that they should not be used”.
The visit will provide an opportunity to begin to chart the future beyond nuclear weapons. “We must get rid of nuclear weapons from the earth at all costs”.
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The Congressional Budget Office estimated in January 2015 that the administration’s plans for nuclear forces would cost $348 billion over the next decade. Japan is the leading US ally in East Asia.
