OBAMA BECOMES FIRST U.S PRESIDENT
TO
VISIT HIROSHIMA BOMB SITE
“Death
fell from the sky and the world was changed,” U.S. President Barack Obama said,
after laying a wreath, closing his eyes and briefly bowing his head before an
arched monument in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park that honors those killed on
August 6, 1945, when U.S. forces dropped the bomb that ushered in the nuclear
age. The bombing, Mr. Obama said, “demonstrated that mankind possessed the
means to destroy itself.”Mr. Obama did not apologise, instead offering, in a
carefully choreographed display, a simple reflection on the horrors of war and
his hope the horror of Hiroshima could spark a “moral awakening.” As he and
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood near an iconic bombed-out domed
building, Mr. Obama acknowledged the devastating toll of war and urged the
world to do better.“We stand here in the middle of this city and force
ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell ... we listen to a silent cry.”
Mr. Obama said.
A second
atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki three days later Hiroshima, killed 70,000
more. Mr. Obama also sought to look forward to the day when there was less
danger of nuclear war. He received a Nobel Peace Prize early on his presidency
for his anti-nuclear agenda but has since seen uneven progress.“We must have
the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them,” Mr.
Obama said of nuclear weapons.The visit presents a diplomatic tightrope for a
U.S. President trying to make history without ripping open old wounds. He did
not apologise for the attack, which is viewed by many in the U.S. as having
hastened the end of World War II; others have called it a war crime that
targeted civilians.Critics believe Mr. Obama’s mere presence in Hiroshima will
be viewed as an apology for what they see as a justified attack. But he has
also drawn praise from those who see it as a long overdue gesture needed to
heal old wounds. Mr. Obama touched down in Hiroshima after completing talks
with world leaders at an international summit in Shima, Japan.
Those who
come to ground zero at Hiroshima speak of its emotional impact, of the searing
imagery of the exposed steel beams on the iconic A-bomb dome. The skeletal
remains of the exhibition hall have become an international symbol of peace and
a place for prayer.The President was accompanied on his visit by Mr. Abe, a
demonstration of the friendship that exists between the only nation ever to use
an atomic bomb and the only nation ever to have suffered from one. U.S.
Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, also joined the President.Bomb survivor
Kinuyo Ikegami, 82, paid her own respects at the cenotaph on Friday morning,
well before Mr. Obama arrived, lighting incense and chanting a prayer. Tears
ran down her face as she described the immediate aftermath of the bomb.“I could
hear schoolchildren screaming- ‘Help me! Help me!’” she said. “It was too
pitiful, too horrible. Even now it fills me with emotion.”“The suffering, such
as illness, gets carried on over the generations that is what I want President
Obama to know,” she said. “I want him to understand our sufferings.”
Mr.
Obama’s visit is a moment 71 years in the making. Other American presidents
considered coming, but the politics were still too sensitive, the emotions too
raw. Jimmy Carter visited as a former President in 1984.Even now, when polls
find 70 per cent of the Japanese support Mr. Obama’s decision to come to
Hiroshima, Mr. Obama’s visit is fraught.There are political foes at home who
are ready to seize on any hint of an unwelcome expression of regret. There are
Koreans who want to hear the president acknowledge the estimated 20,000-40,000
of their citizens who were among the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.There are
blast survivors who want Mr. Obama to listen to their stories, to see their
scars physical and otherwise. There are activists looking for a pledge of new,
concrete steps to rid the world of nuclear weapons. There are American former
POWs who want the President to fault Japan for starting the war in the Pacific.
Prof. John Kurakar
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