The visit, which will be the first to the A-bombed city by a sitting U.S. president, is scheduled to take place on May 27, the final day of the two-day summit, Abe said, adding that he will accompany the leader. “I welcome President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima from the bottom of my heart,” Abe told reporters in the evening.　The act of viewing the city destroyed by the world’s first atomic bomb to be used in warfare, the suffering of its victims and describing his feelings about the visit will greatly help Obama’s bid to rid the world of nuclear weapons, the prime minister said. Obama, who took office in January 2009, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the same year for his stated intention to seek a world devoid of nuclear weapons, a commitment he made in a high-profile speech in Prague three months after his inauguration.　Obama will visit Hiroshima with Abe “to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Asked whether an apology was needed for America’s decision to deploy the powerful weapons against Japan, Abe deflected and said the Hiroshima visit must have been a “huge decision” for Obama to make. He added that a joint visit by the leader of the only nation to use atomic bombs in warfare and the leader of the only nation to be attacked by them will show respect to the victims. Hiroshima was bombed on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later. An online posting by Ben Rhodes, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting, suggested that an apology from Obama was not in the offing. “He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future,” he posted on the website Medium.com. Obama might also lay a wreath at a cenotaph in Peace Memorial Park near ground zero, where a museum displays artifacts gathered from atomic bomb victims and survivors, U.S. government officials said earlier. Expectations for a visit by Obama gained momentum after John Kerry became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Hiroshima at the G-7 foreign ministers meeting last month, which was held in the city.

The Obama administration has been weighing a visit ever since U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last month set foot in Hiroshima for a G-7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting. “I welcome President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima from the bottom of my heart,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will accompany Obama to Hiroshima, said Tuesday evening. Also on Wednesday, the Nikkei financial newspaper reported that Abe may visit Pearl Harbor in November in a symbolic gesture to cement Japan’s alliance with the U.S., quoting an unnamed government source. Suga said the government is not currently considering such a trip, but he added: “I don’t know about the future.” The apparent government leak to the Nikkei may be a trial balloon by Abe to test reactions in Japan and the U.S. Discussing historical issues relating to the U.S. atomic bombings or Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is a potential minefield for Abe, who has centered most of his diplomatic and military policies on Japan’s ties with the United States. Abe and Suga have repeatedly dodged questions over whether Tokyo will seek an apology for the bombings, which killed at least 140,000 people in Hiroshima and another 74,000 in Nagasaki. On Tuesday Abe only said that Obama made a “grave decision” to visit Hiroshima, and on Wednesday Suga went only as far as saying Obama’s plan will be “a historic opportunity to give momentum” to the effort for a world without nuclear weapons. Asked if Japan expects Obama’s visit will be future-oriented and not focused on historical issues, Suga said he believes Obama will come to Hiroshima harboring such a hope. Tobias Harris, a Japanese politics specialist at Washington-based risk advisory service Teneo Intelligence, said Obama is likely to focus on the suffering of the victims.

“Surely he can’t go to Hiroshima and discuss the atomic bombing in passive voice, as if it were some kind of natural disaster?” Harris said. “I do expect that he’ll have to discuss the suffering — and therefore the humanity — of America’s victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which certain sections of American political opinion will criticize as an apology, but I don’t think he’ll go so far as to question the necessity of the decision or, for that matter, offer a lengthy defense of the U.S. decision to drop the bomb.” Richard Samuels, director of the Japan Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says the Obama visit will create strong reactions in two constituencies in particular. “In Japan, it is the Japanese right which has spun up the narrative of ‘Japan as victim.’ They will insist that an Obama visit is vindication of that view. The other is the American right, which will bark about an Obama apology tour, without regard for what he actually says or does in Hiroshima. They will try to agitate the veteran’s community and survivors of the POW camps,” Samuels said. “Neither is a reason to avoid the visit. Obama has the opportunity to acknowledge the past and to remind the world how important it is to take responsibility for the horrors of war into our respective civic cultures. And in so doing, he will be pointing his metaphorical finger right back at Japan, which has often failed to do this,” Samuels added. How surviving veterans in the U.S. will view the visit is of special concern to Obama. Jan Thompson, President of American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, welcomed the visit but said it should not void the full history of Hiroshima.

“This history is first and foremost about the most devastating war in world history where more noncombatants died than combatants. It is about American and Allied soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who fought for peace in Asia,” Thompson said. “It is about a war started by Japan, and for the visit to be solely aspirational and focused on nuclear weapons avoids the hard truths of what it means to fight for freedom and released from tyrannical militarist regime.” Although there will be no formal apology by Obama for the bombing and the Japanese government has said none is being sought, some Japanese feel such words are necessary. Organizers of a May 21 meeting in Hiroshima seeking an apology are asking Obama to use his remaining time in office to take responsibility for the bombing, even as they are also calling on the Japanese government to accept Japan’s responsibility for waging war.

“We seek public recognition that Obama will in Hiroshima, as president, clearly recognize the criminality of mass, indiscriminate slaughter using atomic weapons, have the U.S. take responsibility, and apologize to the victims of the atomic bomb,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “At the same time, the Japanese government and the Abe administration should sincerely accept Japan’s war responsibility and apologize, as well as offer a just compensation to victims of Japan’s aggression.” The city of Hiroshima itself is not seeking an apology. On Wednesday, the city established a task force to prepare for Obama’s visit. Yoshifumi Ishida, head of the task force, said that, fundamentally, it was hoped the U.S. president would do two things. “We want him to meet with the hibakusha and listen to their personal stories and memories of August 6th, 1945. In addition, we also hope that Obama will build on his speech that he made in Prague in 2009 and work hard to eliminate nuclear weapons,” Ishida said.

Information from Kyodo added

Survey participants were also given space to explain why they chose a particular answer. “I think that what we want is not the president’s apologies but his real sympathy from his heart, both personal and official, complex feelings that it happened to human beings, created and done by humans, should not ever happen to humans again,” wrote Reiko Nonaka, a respondent from Japan. “I really appreciated Secretary Kerry’s brave decision to visit and his comment that (he thinks) everyone of the world should come and visit the site (the museum). It’s our negative legacy of the human race.” On the other hand, Chek Parker from the U.S. said an apology is not needed, because the atomic bombings were necessary to prevent further damage to Japan during WWII. “The bombings were necessary. As an example of ‘peace through superior firepower’ they saved far more lives than they took — and yes, they could have taken far more. The fact that we didn’t level major cities like Kyoto was evidence that we were being kind, even in warfare, and gave Japan every opportunity to surrender without being totally annihilated,” Parker wrote. “To apologize for our kindness would be to rob America of even more of what little dignity it has left after Obama’s presidency.” Many of the others who chose “Absolutely not,” including a New Zealand national who identified himself as John Smith, explained that it is unnecessary for Obama to apologize, as Japan has never taken similar actions in the past. “Japan has not apologized appropriately for the millions of heinous crimes carried out on the peoples of many countries during the second World War, and in fact still denies many crimes committed against the Chinese civilian population such as raping, beheading, medical experiments, and burying alive, of 100,000’s … many more than killed in Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” Smith said. “Had Japan not attacked other countries, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would never have happened.” Many of those who chose “Yes” believed that the atomic bombings were unnecessary. “Contrary to popular belief, the atomic bombs did not save ‘millions of lives,’ and, in fact, were not dropped to do so,” commented Mark Garrett from the U.S. “Japan was already on the verge of collapse and the entry of Russia and subsequent massacre of hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives on three fronts in Manchuria was the impetus for surrender to the U.S. The bombs were actually a demonstration to the Soviet Union of America’s military might in hopes of dictating terms in Europe after the war. The U.S. had already been bombing Japan ruthlessly for months. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were simply two more targets.” El Allami Hamza from Morocco also wants an apology and praised President Obama for his bravery toward making this decision. “No one disagree that dropping two of the most powerful weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was against humanity in general. I certainly don’t know exactly what were the motifs of taking this decision, nor the drawbacks of apologizing but, Obama as a president should consider clearing up America’s name, and apologize to let all the souls that suffered in the past rest in peace,” he wrote. Alexandre Gilis from Belgium had a similar sentiment: “While symbolic, official apologies can have a strong emotional impact on both people and can bring closure on what are probably the most dramatic events of the Pacific theater of WWII. It can also show the United States are committed to stand against nuclear proliferation.” The majority who favored a strong stance on nonproliferation explained that making a positive move for the future is more important than apologies. “The actions committed by President Truman do not reflect President Obama, nor the United States today. Nuclear technology was just being developed and the governments who were involved with it and used it had no idea of the effects at the time,” wrote Thomas H from the U.S. “That does not mean it was OK to do, rather can’t count hindsight. Instead of apologizing for actions of the past (where both sides were in the wrong), President Obama should look back on the events and feel convicted to not let it happen again.”

A Hiroshima resident from the U.K. identified as Jackie wrote: “Hiroshima’s message is to move forward past the assignation of blame to a future where we make sure no one anywhere has to endure such atrocities again. If we continue to focus on which side was worse during the war, we will never have meaningful peace.”