The White House is considering a possible visit by President Barack Obama to Hiroshima, the Japanese city devastated in history’s first atomic bombing at the close of WWII, a US official told AFP.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the details of Obama’s visit to Japan for a Group of Seven summit in late May had yet to be finalized, but a trip to Hiroshima had not been ruled out.
Obama is scheduled to participate in the summit of leading democracies in central Japan’s Mie prefecture.
In 2008, then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Hiroshima, becoming the highest, sitting US political figure to visit the city.
Japan has long urged world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see the horrors of the atomic bombings and join efforts to eradicate nuclear arms.
Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman, refrained from directly commenting on the reports, but reiterated Tokyo’s position.
Source: Arab News