"Symbolizing how far the United States and Japan have come in building a deep and abiding alliance based on mutual interests, shared values and an enduring spirit of friendship between our people," according to The White House official statement, The Hill reports that Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning President Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, later this month. Is this merely continuing Obama's apology tour?
Somewhat ironically, The Hill reports, the president will visit the site of the world’s first atomic bombing as he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," the White House said.
Obama's national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, penned the pre-visit propaganda, via Medium.com, explaining the narrative that we should all adopt about why Obama will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a site dedicated to the thousands of who died in the city during World War II..."He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II," Rhodes writes, "instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future."
“In making this visit, the president will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war,” he wrote.
“To be sure, the United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed services who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world,” Rhodes added.
“Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, which the president will again commemorate shortly after the visit on Memorial Day," he wrote.
"Their visit will offer an opportunity to honor the memory of all innocents who were lost during the war.”
Rhodes added that Obama would use his appearance, on May 27, to promote nuclear de-proliferation and America’s strong ties with Japan.
“The president’s time in Hiroshima also will reaffirm America’s longstanding commitment – and the president’s personal commitment – to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” he said.
“As the president has said, the United States has a special responsibility to continue to lead in pursuit of that objective as we are the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon,” Rhodes added.
“Finally, the visit will also symbolize how far the United States and Japan have come in building a deep and abiding alliance based on mutual interests, shared values and an enduring spirit of friendship between our people.”
Well that won't be awkward at all!
As Reuters reports, scars still run deep at what America did but progress on ridding the world of nuclear weapons, not an apology, is what Hiroshima would want from a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to the Japanese city hit by an American nuclear attack 71 years ago, survivors and other residents said.
A presidential apology would be controversial in the United States, where a majority view the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and of the city of Nagasaki three days later, as justified to end the war and save U.S lives.
The vast majority of Japanese think the bombings were unjustified.
“If the president is coming to see what really happened here and if that constitutes a step towards the abolition of nuclear arms in future, I don’t think we should demand an apology,” said Takeshi Masuda, a 91-year-old former school teacher.
“It has been really tough for those who lost family members. But if we demand an apology, that would make it impossible for him to come,” he told Reuters.