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Hiroshima – Nagasaki: Places to Avoid

No sitting US president has ever visited the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only major urban centers on earth that bear testimony to the effects of nuclear warfare. President Jimmy Carter went to Hiroshima as an ex-president. Nancy Pelosi is the highest ranking US official to have paid a visit to Hiroshima while in office. 

President Obama will visit Japan during his Asian trip. Obama is hugely popular there and his winning the Nobel Peace Prize had raised the hopes of Japanese citizens that he might become the first US president to set foot in one of the two cities that the Japanese consider the strongest case against future nuclear proliferation and for banning nuclear weapons altogether. But Obama's tight schedule includes only a brief stop in Tokyo with no time left to go to either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Obama did assure the Japanese press in an interview that he will one day visit both places during his presidency. Incidentally, no sitting Japanese prime minister has ever visited Pearl Harbor.

Two reports here and here.

Hiroshima light bulb factory
The Light Bulb Factory in Hiroshima – Ground Zero on August 6, 1945

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4 responses to “Hiroshima – Nagasaki: Places to Avoid”

  1. Sujatha

    Just gotta love the WaPo framing : “Hiroshima: The dreaded invitation
    Obama declines offer to visit the bombed city on his first trip to East Asia” vs the ever-so conciliatory AP headlines “Obama says he wants to visit Hiroshima in future”. He’s damned if he doesn’t or does visit, I guess.

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  2. Joe

    That’s nice that Obama promised to visit Hiroshima while in office, I guess. Although he also promised to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Haven’t seen any action on that — so color me skeptical of his vague, open-ended promises. (And speaking of gay rights, although he didn’t say he’s in favor of same-sex marriage, why isn’t he at least pushing for legislation to at least extend the Civil Rights Act to cover sexual orientation as a protected class.)

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  3. Ruchira

    Joe, did you see this post? Even the doctors are asking him to act on this.

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  4. Sujatha

    Also, this:
    “Frank said that he has been in communication with the White House, Nancy Pelosi, and other congressional leaders. He said that the White House was committed to repealing the measure, mentioning as an anecdote that the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had switched from speaking about ‘if’ DADT would be repealed to speaking about ‘when’ DADT would be repealed. “That’s because Rahm called him up,” Frank continued. “The White House has been consistently committed.”

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