President Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, the White House says—a move that may not have immediate practical implications but one that nonetheless resonates symbolically with other second-term diplomatic agreements Obama has made with American antagonists past and present in Cuba and Iran.
From a blog post by deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes explaining the trip’s purpose:
So, on May 27, the President will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a site at the center of the city dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing, where he will share his reflections on the significance of the site and the events that occurred there. 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.
The visit will “offer an opportunity to honor the memory of all innocents who were lost during the war,” Rhodes writes, while also noting that “the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II” supported a just cause.
Former President Jimmy Carter visited Hiroshima in 1984.
