Sec. of state focuses on nuclear-free future, not WWII.
HIROSHIMA, Japan — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the revered memorial to Hiroshima’s atomic bombing today, delivering a message of peace and hope for a nuclear-free world seven decades after United States used the weapon for the first time in history.
Kerry became the most senior American official ever to visit the site, touring the city’s Peace Memorial Park and Museum with other foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. Some 140,000 Japanese died in the attack in the final days of World War II.
But he pointedly did not apologize for the U.S. decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He said his trip to Hiroshima was about the future, not the past, and hailed the strong alliance between Japan and the U.S. today.
Still, Kerry’s appearance just footsteps away from Ground Zero marked a further evolution for the United States, whose leaders avoided the city for many years because of political sensitivities.
No serving U.S. president has visited the site, and it took 65 years for a U.S. ambassador to attend the city’s annual memorial service.
President Barack Obama himself may travel to city next month. But it’s not clear if he will visit the Hiroshima memorial.
Japanese survivors’ groups have campaigned for decades to bring leaders of nuclear nations to Hiroshima to see the city’s scars from the atomic attack.