US President Obama’s Hiroshima visit

President Obama will visit Hiroshima after attending the G7 Ise-Shima summit in Mie prefecture, Japan. It will be an historic event.

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his efforts towards nuclear disarmament and his visit will have an enormous symbolic importance towards nuclear abolition.

It is said that many Americans believe the dropping of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified and hastened the end of the war.

For the Japanese, it would never be justified that Hiroshima was nearly destroyed (three days later a second bombing was dropped on Nagasaki) and 140,000 people were killed and others have endured aftereffects from severe radiation exposure by devastating atomic bomb.

However, Japanese people are widely welcoming Obama’s visit to the city, even without an apology. It would be more important for Japan that the US President and other world leaders visit Hiroshima and understand the reality of the suffering caused by the atomic bombing.