Obama’s Hiroshima visit in May

As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the Hiroshima peace memorial park this month has been fixed, the world is now curious whether President Obama would follow suit during his scheduled visit to Japan next month. If he decides to do so, he will be the first incumbent U.S .president to visit the memorial park.

The prevailing estimate of Washington is that Obama is considering positively of it. In fact, visiting the only bomb-stroke site in the world history could be a symbolic step for Mr. Obama, who has been calling out a “nuclear-free world” throughout his presidency, represented by holding the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit.

Kerry will fit the park in his schedule on the occasion of his attending the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held in Hiroshima from this coming Sunday and Monday. President Obama is considering a stopover with his colleague leaders on his way to the G7 Summit to be held in Ise-Shima on April 26 and 27.

The Hiroshima peace park is where yearly memorial ceremonies take place on Aug. 6 (the date of the nuclear bombing in 1945) in honor of the victims of the bombing. Survivors of the bombing and other anti-nuclear groups have been urging Obama’s visit to Hiroshima during his term since his “nuclear-free world” speech in 2009. Japanese Prime Minister Abe and other politicians of the country have been lobbying to invite Obama to the site during his scheduled trip to Japan for the G7 Summit, the last one to attend as president.

The Hiroshima issue is of great historical sensitivity between the U.S. and Japan, an equivalent to the comfort women issue between South Korean and Japan. The two nations never officially put the issue on the table. The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s major news outlets, described the issue in September 2011 “a historical thorn deeply embedded in the U.S.-Japan relationship.”

A source from Washington said that President Obama seems to hold personal sympathy for the victims of Hiroshima. It would not be easy for Obama to refuse Japan’s invitation to the site especially because the country is pivot to Asia policy. It would also be beneficial for the U.S. to maintain a friendly relationship with Japan when potential conflict with China remains regarding South China Sea.

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