TOKYO – Japanese are welcoming President Barack Obama’s decision to visit the atomic-bombed city ofHiroshima, and those interviewed Wednesday said they aren’t seeking an apology.
They expressed happiness that he plans to stop at the memorial for victims of the 1945 bombing after attending the annual Group of Seven summit in Japan.
“I don’t live in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but I am overcome with emotion when I think that someone who wants to offer understanding is finally about to arrive,” said Mieko Mori, a 74-year-old woman who stopped at a memorial in Tokyo to pray for the victims.
Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, a city almost entirely destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb in the final days of World War II. Some 140,000 people were killed, and others have endured after-effects to this day.
The U.S. dropped a second devastating atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later. Japan announced it would surrender soon after, on Aug. 15, 1945.