Obama to visit Hiroshima on May 27: Japan gov't

[Ceewan]

Tokyo (Kyodo) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will make the first visit to Hiroshima by a U.S. head of state on May 27, Japan's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will accompany Obama to Hiroshima, the ministry said. The U.S. government also announced the visit.

Obama will visit the western Japanese city which was devastated by a 1945 U.S. atomic bomb at the final stage of World War II, on the occasion of a two-day Group of Seven summit ending that day also in Japan.

Obama may lay a wreath at a cenotaph in the Peace Memorial Park near ground zero, where a museum displays artifacts of atomic bomb victims and survivors, U.S. government officials said earlier.

In mid-April, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited memorial locations in Hiroshima such as the Peace Memorial Museum and the Atomic Bomb Dome, skeletal remains of the only major building that survived the explosion. Japan welcomed the visit on the sidelines of G-7 foreign ministers' talks in the city.

Obama, who took office in January 2009, was awarded that year's Nobel Peace Prize for his stated intention to seek a world without nuclear weapons, a commitment he made in a high-profile speech in Prague three months after inauguration.

A visit by a serving president to Hiroshima is expected to stir controversy in the United States due to concerns it could be construed as an apology for the attacks.

There is widespread belief that the atomic bombings were necessary to make Japan surrender and save U.S. soldiers as a result.

During his first trip to Japan as president in 2009, Obama told a press conference in Tokyo that he would be "honored" to have the opportunity to visit the cities.

The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 and another on Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing the war to an end.

The number of people -- most of them civilians -- who had died by the end of 1945 from the bombings is estimated at 140,000 in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki, according to the cities.

The highest-ranking U.S. official so far to have visited Hiroshima is Nancy Pelosi, who did so in 2008 as speaker of the House of Representatives. The House chief stands behind only the vice president in the line of succession to the U.S. presidency.

In 1984 Jimmy Carter, as a former American president, visited the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima.

Obama has sent U.S. ambassadors John Roos and Caroline Kennedy to the annual peace ceremonies in the atomic-bombed cities since 2010. Rose Gottemoeller, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, also attended the ceremony in Hiroshima last year.

 

[Ceewan]

Abe to accompany Obama on Hiroshima visit

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he welcomes the decision by US President Barack Obama to visit the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima.

Abe told reporters on Tuesday evening that he will accompany Obama when he goes to the city on May 27th after the G7 summit in central Japan.

He said he wants to make it an opportunity for the people of Japan and the United States to pay tribute to the victims of the bombing over 70 years ago.

Abe said he called for the abolition of nuclear weapons as the leader of the only country to have experienced the tragedy.
He said a recurrence of such a calamity should be avoided in any part of the world.

Abe said he believes that Obama's visit to Hiroshima will give great momentum to realizing a world free of nuclear weapons.

 

[Ceewan]

Chinese media raps Japan for 'playing victim' through Obama's Hiroshima visit


BEIJING/SEOUL -- Mainstream Chinese media on May 11 reacted sharply to the U.S. government's announcement that President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima later this month, saying Japan is trying to generate an image as a war victim.

The Xinhua News Agency ran an article with its headline saying President Obama's visit to Hiroshima is not intended as an apology for the atomic bombing. "Japan is trying to generate an image as a victim in World War II," read the article. CCTV and the Global Times also echoed the opinion of the Xinhua News in their online editions.

Chinese media had shown similar reactions when the Group of Seven foreign ministers visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in April. The Chinese foreign ministry released a comment with reference to Japan's wartime responsibility, saying China hoped that the foreign ministers' visit was a gesture of the Japanese government's commitment never to walk the path toward militarism again.

Beijing had earlier opposed Tokyo's calls for world leaders to visit atomic bombed cities during the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, saying Japan was using such a proposal as a tool to distort history.

Meanwhile, South Korean media reported on Obama's decision to visit Hiroshima in a rather calm tone. While YTN news channel reported that there were domestic concerns in South Korea that Obama's visit could change Japan's position as a perpetrator in World War II and of colonial rule into that as a victim, major newspapers mainly reported on the facts in their May 11 morning editions.

The Chosun Ilbo daily carried a related article on its front page, with its headline reading, "U.S. president to visit Hiroshima 71 years after nuclear bombing." The newspaper reported that Obama, known for his commitment to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, had expressed his wishes since 2009 to visit Hiroshima while in office. The daily, however, described Obama's visit to Hiroshima as "a present from the United States to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has worked to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance."

The Dong-A Ilbo explained the processes leading up to Obama's decision to visit Hiroshima, including the fact that Japan was not asking for an apology from the United States. However, the paper pointed out that some view Obama's visit will provide an opportunity for Abe's rightest administration to strengthen Japan's image as a war victim.

 

[Ceewan]

A-bomb survivors, residents welcome Obama's visit to Hiroshima


HIROSHIMA -- Atomic bombing survivors and local residents who were at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 11 welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to visit this atomic-bombed city on May 27.

Seiki Mukogaichi, 46, a counselor at a care home for hibakusha, or atomic-bombing survivors, in Hiroshima, described the first visit by a sitting U.S. president as "historic," and urged Obama to clearly declare in this atomic-bombed city that he will work to get rid of nuclear arms.

"There are high expectations for President Obama. I'd like him to feel the weight of delivering a speech in the atomic-bombed city and declare that he will eliminate nuclear weapons," said Mukogaichi, a resident of the city's Asaminami Ward who commutes to his workplace via the park.

A 75-year-old woman, who learned mathematics from hibakusha and former schoolteacher Sunao Tsuboi, 91, when she was a junior high school student, urged Obama to listen to what hibakusha have to say.

"The activities of Mr. Tsuboi, who has called on Japan and other countries to push for nuclear disarmament despite his poor health have borne fruit. I'd like President Obama to listen to the voices of hibakusha about how they have spent the past 71 years," she said. Tsuboi serves as chairperson of the Hiroshima Prefecture Confederation of Atomic Bomb Sufferers Organizations.

A 75-year-old man who was 5 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, cleans the park twice a week.

"I don't think the president will acknowledge U.S. responsibility for dropping the bomb, but just coming to Hiroshima is enough. I hope the visit will be a turning point toward nuclear disarmament from a long-term perspective," he said.

Shigetoshi Watanabe, 55, a civil servant who moved to Hiroshima's Naka Ward five years ago, said he wants Obama to feel the unique atmosphere in Hiroshima.

"There's an atmosphere in which you can sense the feelings of those who died in the bombing. I'd like President Obama to feel that," he said.

However, a 54-year-old woman from Asaminami Ward, Hiroshima, whose father is a hibakusha, reacted coolly to Obama's upcoming visit.

"I can't expect his upcoming visit to immediately change something. Since he will come to Hiroshima with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, I think extremely tight security measures will be taken. I hope that the visit will end peacefully without a terrorist attack," she said.