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1 1 (May 19, 2016)

handle is hein.crs/govcdxu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: A Presidential Visit to Hiroshima - mmm, go mppm qq\ , q I aS 11LULANJILiN, Updated May 19, 2016 On May 10, the White House announced that President Obama will visit Hiroshima when he travels to Japan for the May 26-27 G-7 summit, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit the city. In the closing days of World War II, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated 200,000 people, about half of whom died immediately. The bombings were the two and only times that nuclear weapons have been used in war. On August 15, 1945, six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered to Allied Forces. A visit to Hiroshima allows President Obama to return to the issue of nuclear disarmament that he broached in the early months of his Administration. In a speech in Prague in April 2009, he pledged to pursue an agenda that would reduce nuclear dangers and lead, in the future, to the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. The Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2009 awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize due in part to his advocacy for a world free of nuclear weapons. During a visit to Japan in 2009, Obama was quoted by a reporter as saying, The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency. In what some observers interpreted as a prelude to an Obama visit, on April 11, 2016, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest-level U.S. official to visit Hiroshima. He laid a wreath at the memorial site and toured the museum that portrays the destruction of the atomic bombing. Kerry visited with his counterparts from the other G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom), including Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, a Hiroshima native. Some critics could interpret the presidential visit to Hiroshima as an implicit apology for a military decision justified by ending a devastating war and saving American lives. Further, it could unearth difficult historical issues between Washington and Tokyo that could potentially degrade the strength of the thriving bilateral alliance. In contrast, supporters see the visit as an opportunity to reiterate the President's commitment to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons, as well as a powerful demonstration of reconciliation between erstwhile enemies. The emotional element of a visit could animate domestic politics in both countries, as well as engage the international disarmament community and regional powers. Recent statements by high-level Japanese officials indicate that, despite some initial ambivalence, Tokyo welcomes Obama's visit to Hiroshima as another indication of the robust health of the bilateral relationship. In the past three years, updated bilateral defense arrangements, regular and successful high-level visits, and strategic alignment have solidified the two countries' military alliance. During his visit in April 2015, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Washington's World War II memorial before expressing his deep repentance for Japan's actions during the war in an address to a joint meeting of Congress. While some observers on both sides fear that re-opening painful history between the two countries carries risk of hurting the alliance, others feel that a forthright discussion of history actually could deepen trust. Supporters of the visit point to the benefits of reinforcing the Obama Administration's strategic rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific region by showcasing the strength of the partnership 70 years after the conclusion of the war. Some analysts posit that Abe may consider visiting Pearl Harbor as Prime Minister to reciprocate Obama's gesture. Before Secretary Kerry's visit, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had been the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the site, in 2008. President Jimmy Carter visited Hiroshima in 1984 after leaving office. Obama's first envoy to Japan, John Roos, was the first ambassador to attend the annual ceremonies marking the anniversaries of the bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, respectively. Current ambassador Caroline Kennedy has continued the practice. Much of the U.S. media speculation surrounding the visit centers on the questions of whether it would be interpreted as an apology. The White House has been clear that Obama will not apologize but instead would offer a forward- looking signal for his ambition of realizing the goal of a planet without nuclear weapons. During his visit, Secretary Kerry did not issue an apology. After visiting the museum that details the human suffering caused by the bombing, Kerry called the experience gut-wrenching and went on to underscore the importance of curbing the existence of nuclear weapons worldwide. This in some respects parallels Abe's speech to Congress in 2015, in which he reflected with remorse on the damage that Japan caused in World War II without giving an explicit apology. Critics who charge that simply appearing at the atomic bombing memorial site would imply an apology say that a presidential visit may be particularly offensive to U.S. veteran and Prisoners of War (POW) groups. Some U.S. activists have called on Obama also to visit sites in Japan where U.S. POWs were subjected to brutal treatment. .O 'T

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