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"We Come To Mourn The Dead" - Obama Is First Sitting President To Visit Hiroshima, Offers No Apology

Ealier today, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit the memorial of the American atomic bombings of Japan in Hiroshima, however without offering no apology for the attacks. The trip comes amid Japanese protests over alleged crimes committed by US troops stationed in Japan.

"We have a shared responsibility to look directly in the eye of history. We must ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again," Obama said in a speech at the memorial. Some of the speech highlights:

"We’re not bound by our genetic codes to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can tell our children a different story. Those who died, they are like us. Ordinary people understand this I think. They do not want more war. The world was forever changed here. But today, the children of this city will go through their day in peace. What a precious thing."

Obama placed a wreath in front of a cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Obama’s visit opened a new chapter of reconciliation for the US and Japan, and praised the president for his courage in coming to Hiroshima.

As a reminder, the US is the only nation to have used nuclear weapons in warfare. The two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killed thousands, with the death toll reaching 140,000 by the end of the year. The majority of Japanese disagree with the American justification that it was necessary to drop the bombs in order to bring an end to the war.

As noted in the comments from survivors below, some had expected an apology from the US president "to help ease their suffering." They did not get it. Instead they got more of the token Obama specialty, rhetoric:

"We come to ponder the terrible force unleashed in a not-so-distant past," Obama said after laying a wreath at the memorial. "We come to mourn the dead."

For many, that was not enough. "I want Obama to say 'I'm sorry.' If he does, maybe my suffering will ease," Eiji Hattori, 73, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima, told Reuters before the ceremony. His parents and grandparents, rice traders, all died in the years following the attack. Hattori has three types of cancer. On hearing the speech, he said: "I think [the speech] was an apology."

"If Obama were to apologize as the representative of the United States, then Japan's military needs to apologize too,” said Mieko Koike, a 67-year-old Hiroshima resident, which would be only fair.

Others were less intent on hearing an apology, and instead saw the mere arrival of the US president as an important step.

“An apology doesn’t matter. I just want [President Obama] to come and visit Hiroshima and see real things and listen to the voice of survivors,” Sunao Tsuboi, 91, a bombing survivor and anti-nuclear activist, told AFP. He suffered burns from the blast and developed cancer.

Obama’s visit to Japan is marred not only by historical legacy but also by fresh strains in bilateral relations. Last week, a former Marine working at a US military base in Okinawa was arrested by the Japanese police for allegedly killing a Japanese girl in April. On Friday, just as Obama was visiting the Hiroshima memorial, a US sailor pleaded guilty to raping an intoxicated Japanese woman in Okinawa’s capital Naha in March.

Okinawa, which was the scene of fierce battles in wartime, hosts roughly half of all American troops deployed in Japan. The presence of US bases and problems associated with them, including crimes committed by US personnel, have been a source of constant resentment among Okinawans.

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Meanwhile, courtesy of Reuters, here are some comments from local Hiroshima residents.

EIJI HATTORI, 73, SURVIVOR

"I want Obama to say 'I'm sorry.' If he does, maybe my suffering will ease."

Hattori's parents and grandparents, who sold rice near where the bomb fell, all either died that day or in the years that followed. He has been told he was riding a tricycle when the bomb exploded, and now has three types of cancer.

"If Obama apologized, I could die and meet my parents in heaven in peace. I can tell them it happened."

KENJI ISHIDA, 68, TAXI DRIVER

"A sitting U.S. president visiting Hiroshima is just the first step. We're still 10 years from the possibility of a president issuing an apology."

Born two years after the bomb was dropped, Ishida remembers growing up with bomb survivors whose skin was scarred.

"Japan has to apologize for Pearl Harbour, too, if we're going to say the U.S. must apologize ... That's not possible, given the countries' current situations. In America, people say the war ended early because they dropped the atomic bomb. If a president apologized for this, it would raise hell in the U.S.

"We can't tell North Korea not to have nukes when the U.S. has them, but the U.S. developed them first ... It's not possible to get rid of nuclear weapons when they're being used as deterrence."

MIEKO KOIKE, 67, HIROSHIMA RESIDENT

"If Obama were to apologize as the representative of the United States, then Japan's military needs to apologize too ... The best thing is for both (Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe) to apologize together.

"I want Obama to visit the (memorial) museum, I want him to feel the shock ... It's not something humans would do. The bomb harmed so many innocent civilians, especially the weak, like women and babies."

TAXI DRIVER, IN HIS 70S

"For 70 years, my family has been fighting with the risks of radiation."

The driver, who was born before the bomb fell and declined to give his name, said his parents were irradiated. His younger siblings, born after the bombing, fear they may one day show symptoms.

"In all the years I've been alive, I've never once attended the memorial on Aug. 6 ... My family avoids thinking about it as much as possible, we're trying so hard to forget.

"Many people in Hiroshima feel the same way."

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Hiroshima
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Japan
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