Obama In Hiroshima: Get Rid Of ‘Evil’ Atomic Bombs

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh ah-bay) says President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima will give a “big boost” to efforts to achieve a nuclear-free world.

“A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself”, President Obama said.

He then made an address in which he said what the world needs is “a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare, but the start of our own moral awakening”.

The city of Nagasaki was hit by a second nuclear bomb on 9 August, 1945, and Japan surrendered six days later.

As an eternal flame flickered behind him, however, he said leaders had an obligation to pursue a world without nuclear weapons. We come to ponder the awful forces unleashed in the not-so-distant past.

The president and Tsuboi were seen smiling and exchanging a few laughs. What a precious thing that is.

In an interview at the retirement home she shares with other bomb victims, Tsuyako Hiramatsu, 90, flipped through the pages of a book with a photograph of smiling young World War II pilots holding a puppy on its cover.

Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima’s hallowed ground on Friday.

Shigeaki Mori, 79, appeared overwhelmed with emotion as he shook hands with US President Barack Obama after a highly-charged ceremony in Hiroshima.

“At any place in the world, this tragedy must not be repeated again”, Mr Abe said.

“We definitely support his decision to not apologize because we truly feel like it would dishonor those who sacrificed”, Powell told NHK-TV. While holding banners that read “Get rid of all nukes immediately”, “Remove all USA bases from Okinawa” and “We won’t let you use military alliances to start your next war”, protesters also shouted “You’re not welcome here, Obama and Abe” and “Get out of Hiroshima”. “That is what is important”, he said. The Japan-U.S. alliance forged in the aftermath of the war now enters a new stage in the global fight to abolish nuclear weapons.

“I was thrilled to attend the historic event”. Amid rising fears regarding the Islamist militant groups and grave environmental issues, this is one area that can be resolved now and therefore it must be done, thinks the current US President Barack Obama.

By acknowledging the pain and suffering of these people, President Obama has attempted to prove that humanity can cross borders, and humility does not detract from strength.

Former president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) had visited Hiroshima in May 1984, after the end of his term in office.

Sherman Gillums Jr., a Marine veteran and executive director of Paralyzed Veterans of America, described Obama’s visits to Vietnam and Hiroshima as “bittersweet for many, particularly ahead of Memorial Day”.