“[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. “This would be a first step toward abolishing nuclear weapons”.
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Pew Research Center found that similar opinions still persist in 2015: 56 percent of Americans believe the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified, opposed to 34 percent who say the bombs were not justified.
The visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park will occur after Obama attends a previously announced meeting of the Group of Seven leaders in Ise-Shima.
“It is a big news for us”.
Hiroshima is now a thriving, modern city, little different from many others in Japan, although the bombed-out remains of a domed building stands tribute to those who died in the world’s first ever atomic attack.
Residents of a historic Hispanic village in New Mexico are praising President Barack Obama’s plan to visit Hiroshima – the Japanese city where the USA dropped an atomic bomb.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency in 2009 in part for making nuclear nonproliferation a centerpiece of his agenda, Obama on May 27 will tour the site of the world’s first nuclear bombing with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“What struck me most was that those elderly ladies really wanted us to know what they went through so the same mistake would never be repeated, rather than wanting to get (America) to apologize”, Matsuki, 17, said Wednesday. U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to Hiroshima in May 2016 in the first visit by a sitting American president to the site where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb.
According to White House officials, Obama is going but will absolutely “not apologize”.
“Japan was also trying to develop nuclear weapons”, Takatsugu Sakamoto, 80, said by telephone from Nishinomiya in Osaka prefecture.
“I hear America is still divided over atomic bombings, but it’s been nearly 71 years since the war ended, and I think it’s about time Obama should be able to visit Hiroshima”, said Kohachiro Hayashi, a retired teacher who was reading a newspaper at a Tokyo park. What President Obama will do is make note of the fact that the relationship between the United States and Japan has emerged stronger than anybody could have imagined back in 1945.. “Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future”, said Rhodes.
Japan’s neighbors in China and South Korea will also be watching the visit closely, always eager to make sure that their once hyper-aggressive foe is not allowed to play the role of a World War II victim.
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The White House described the trip as an effort to highlight the US “commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”.
