American President Barack Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on Friday, telling an audience that included survivors of America’s atomic bombing in 1945 that technology as devastating as nuclear arms demands a “moral revolution”. “A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city, and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself”.
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Those who come to ground zero at Hiroshima speak of its emotional impact, of the searing imagery of the exposed steel beams on the iconic A-bomb dome.
The tragic notes in the speech came immediately afterwards in a brief reference to the carnage in Syria (“even the crudest rifles and barrel bombs can serve up violence on a awful scale”) and a decent but probably forlorn hope that we may eventually “see our growing interdependence as a cause for peaceful cooperation and not violent competition”. “We come to mourn the dead”, he said. “They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become”. Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us. “A future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not for the bomb of atomic warfare but as the start of our moral awakening”, President Obama said. Shim Jin-tae had deep disappointment in his voice after observing US President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima on May 27. The briefcase is called the “nuclear football”, which would be used by Obama if he were to authorize a nuclear attack as the commander in chief. “Let us now find the courage, together, to spread peace, and pursue a world without nuclear weapons”.
Since Obama received the Nobel for his anti-nuclear agenda, he has seen uneven progress and criticism over plans for a big, costly program to upgrade USA nuclear stockpiles.
Many U.S. allies fear Trump will feed insecurity in countries anxious about China’s growing power, embolden nationalists and authoritarians, and unravel Obama’s “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific. The delegation also distributed a letter to Japanese reporters titled “We demand acknowledgement, investigation, an apology, and compensation for the Korean atomic bomb victims”, in which they asked for more press attention to Korean survivor issues. Just 8 when the bomb hit, Mori had to hold back tears at the emotion of the moment.
Obama’s visit was infused with symbolism for the two nations that have evolved from bitter World War II enemies into close allies.
Hiroshima University student Morita Hirotaka said during an interview with Xinhua that with the end of his last president term in office approaching, Obama hoped to leave behind some political legacy. From there, Obama and Abe walked along a tree-lined path toward a river that flows by the iconic A-bomb dome, the skeletal remains of an exhibition hall that stands as silent testimony to the very bad power of the bomb blast 71 years ago and as a symbol for global peace. Noting that far more primitive weapons than nuclear arms are causing widespread destruction today, Obama called for humanity to change its mindset about war.
Nuclear nonproliferation experts said Friday’s events at Hiroshima would be useful in highlighting the ongoing threat. “Those things are the heaven, exactly the peace in the world there”.
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The proposal was spelt out in the OEWG working paper 34 – Perspectives from nuclear weapon free zones by a group of countries that have already prohibited nuclear weapons in their regions through nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZs). Other survivors who visited Hiroshima also expressed disappointment over Obama’s failure to visit a memorial stone to Korean A-bomb victims at Hiroshima Peace Park.
