President Barack Obama’s trip to Japan later this month will include a stop in the city of Hiroshima, the White House announced Tuesday. This will make him the first serving U.S. president to visit the site of the Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. atomic bomb strike.
Obama “will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” according to a White House statement covering the president’s May 21-28 trip to Vietnam and Japan.
In a separate statement, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama would visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 27 following a summit of the Group of Seven nations. Rhodes said Obama would not address the question of whether the United States made the correct decision to drop atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to end World War II. “Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future,” Rhodes stated.
Abe, speaking to Japanese broadcaster NTV on Tuesday, avoided suggesting Obama would offer any apology for the atomic bombings on behalf of the United States. “I believe this will add great strength to getting closer to a world without nuclear weapons,” he said. “And to realize such a world, I hope to do my utmost, together with President Obama.”
The trip to Hiroshima will follow earlier visits by Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday it had not yet been determined if Obama would meet with survivors of the Hiroshima bombing, which is estimated to have killed roughly 140,000 people. He also does not plan to give a major speech at the site, Earnest said.
Earnest acknowledged there would be criticism of Obama, whose critics charge him with being an apologist for the United States. Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, though, were largely muted in their response: “I don’t think he’s going to go apologize. I don’t mind the president going to the memorial,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), according to the Washington Post.
In a commentary published Tuesday, former CIA senior official Bruce Klingner said that, even absent an apology, the visit to Hiroshima “will appear to affirm the oft-expressed Japanese view of itself as victim due to its unique status as the only country to have suffered an atomic attack.”
“Focusing the visit on the ‘evils’ of nuclear weapons will only contribute to this dynamic,” stated Klingner, now a senior research fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Shortly after coming into office, Obama laid out an ambitious nuclear nonproliferation plan during an April 2009 speech in Prague. He addressed his hopes for a nuclear arms-free world, but acknowledged that this dream might not happen during his lifetime, and pledged the United States would maintain a safe, secure, and effective nuclear arsenal as long as such weapons exist.
His administration since then has sealed a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, joined with five other nations to seal a nuclear deal with Iran, and led a series of global summits aimed at strengthening security of nuclear and radiological materials. However, a number of goals remained unfulfilled, including U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and additional nuclear stockpile reductions with Russia.
The Obama administration has also moved forward with controversial modernization of the nation’s nuclear arsenal, which is estimated to cost as much as $1 trillion over 30 years and includes reconfigured warhead types, a new cruise missile, and other updated delivery systems.
“Much of the work to refurbish our nuclear weapons stockpile has been conducted with the goal of ensuring the safety of those nuclear weapons, but also enhancing their readiness,” Earnest said. “But none of that detracts from the top-line goal that the president has set out, which is to rid the world of nuclear weapons.”
