US president Barack Obama visited Hiroshima and laid a wreath at the site of world’s first atomic bombing on Friday. This gesture of Obama might unite Tokyo and Washington and breathe life into efforts to abolish nuclear arms.
The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 which killed thousands of people and some 140,000 by the year end. The city of Nagasaki was hit by a second bomb on August 9, 1945, Japan surrendered three days later.
“We come to ponder the terrible force unleashed in a not-so-distant past,” Obama said after laying a wreath at a peace memorial. “We come to mourn the dead,” he added.
https://youtu.be/3z24SyHJXo4
A majority of Americans see the bombings as having been necessary to end the war and save lives. Most Japanese believe they were unjustified.
Obama has said he will honour all who died in World War Two but will not apologise for the bombing.
