“Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future”, Rhodes wrote.
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A presidential visit to Hiroshima has been hotly debated in recent months, with many asking how it would be received by war veterans in the U.S. and bomb survivors in Japan.
Another was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on Aug 9, 1945, and Japan surrendered six days later. Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue said the president would send a powerful message, in his own words, toward achieving a world without nuclear weapons..
Obama’s upcoming visit is an opportunity to demonstrate to the rest of the world the ever-deepening ties in the alliance between Japan and the United States, which were wartime enemies.
Rhodes said Obama would deliver remarks on nuclear non-proliferation – a central tenet of the President’s foreign policy – during the stop in Hiroshima, which is scheduled for May 27.
The two bombings were reported to kill more than 200,000 people, and also being the only use of nuclear weapons at war. Some 140,000 people were killed, and others have endured after-effects to this day.
Obama also will make his first visit to Vietnam, visiting Hanoi on May 24 and Ho Chi Minh City on May 25, the White House said.
The president intends to “highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
The White House says he will lay a wreath at the peace monument in Hiroshima and is expected to make a speech about his ambitions for a nuclear-free world.
Doves fly up over the atomic bomb dome during the peace memorial ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan.
“[Obama] will offer his honest condolences to the victims, together with myself as the prime minister of the only country that has experienced atomic bombings”, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters on Tuesday evening in Japan.
Singapore’s state-run Channel NewsAsia has repeatedly run stories on Obama’s “historic” visit from Tuesday night through Wednesday. The United States continues to be the only country to have used nuclear weapons. That changed in August 2010, when John V. Roos, the American ambassador at the time, attended a commemoration in Hiroshima.
Former president Jimmy Carter visited Hiroshima after leaving office, while Richard Nixon went to the city a few years before assuming the presidency.
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In making this visit, the president will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war, Mr. Rhodes added in the blog post.
