Hiroshima Survivors Seek Nuclear Disarmament
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Progress on ridding the world of nuclear weapons, not an apology, is what Hiroshima would want from a visit by US President Barack Obama to the Japanese city hit by an American nuclear attack 71 years ago, survivors and other residents said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said during a visit to the city on Monday that Obama wanted to travel there, though he did not know if the president's schedule would allow him to when he visits Japan for a Group of Seven summit in May.
No incumbent US president has ever visited Hiroshima.
A presidential apology would be controversial in the United States, where a majority view the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and of the city of Nagasaki three days later, as justified to end the war and save US lives, although the vast majority of those killed in the two attacks were innocent civilians.
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 toward 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, Reuters reported.
"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 said.
Masuda's mother died a few weeks after being caught in the nuclear attack. At schools where he taught after World War Two, some students had been orphaned, others severely burned.
A US warplane dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing thousands of people instantly and about 140,000 by the end of that year. Nagasaki was bombed on August 9, 1945, and Japan surrendered six days later.
