President Obama Will Be First Sitting POTUS To Visit Hiroshima Since WWII (VIDEO)


In 2009, President Obama said that he would like to visit the cities that were hit with the atomic bombs during World War II. He just recently became the first sitting POTUS to visit Cuba in 90 years.

Now, he is going to be making history again by becoming the first sitting President to visit Hiroshima since World War II.

President Obama has made arrangements with the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, to visit the city together on May 27. This is a great way to spend Memorial Day. He is not apologizing for the atomic bombs dropped there during Word War II, but Obama wants to go in order to:

“Highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”

This will be the fourth time Obama has been to Japan during his presidency. This is what he said about Hiroshima and Nagasaki during his 2009 visit:

“The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency.”

This visit will be part of a multi-stop journey through Asia the week of May 21 – 28. He will attend a Group of Seven Summit in Japan, and he will make his first trip to Vietnam.

Prime Minister Abe had this to say about the visit:

“[He hopes to] turn this into an opportunity for the U.S. and Japan to together pay tribute to the memories of the victims.”

He also said:

“President Obama visiting Hiroshima and expressing toward the world the reality of the impact of nuclear radiation will contribute greatly to establishing a world without nuclear arms.”

 Survivors of the bombings and residents of the city say that they hope Obama’s visit will signal progress in getting rid of nuclear weapons. They would rather have that than an apology.

Let’s just hope no other city has to deal with the horror of a nuclear weapon ever again.

To learn more about the significance of President Obama’s trip to Hiroshima, see the documentary below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5MQJuhkvdI

Featured image by Beth Rankin via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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