US to propose Hiroshima visit by Obama in May

TOKYO: The United States will propose that President Barack Obama visits Hiroshima, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper said on Friday, in what would be the first visit by an incumbent US president to the city devastated by a US nuclear attack 71 years ago.

Citing an unidentified senior US government official, the business daily said Washington planned to propose to Tokyo a visit by the president on May 27, at the end of a G7 summit hosted by Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.

In Washington, a White House official said no decision has been made. Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga denied the visit was being arranged and declined further comment.

A US warplane dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing thousands of people instantly and about 140,000 by the end of that year. Nagasaki was bombed on August 9, 1945, and Japan surrendered six days later.

A presidential visit would be controversial in the US if it were seen as an apology. A majority of Americans view the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as justified to end the war.