Reports that the White House is considering a visit to Hiroshima by U.S. President Barack Obama before or after the Group of Seven Summit in May are creating excitement and concern about how it will be perceived and whether such a visit would move the U.S.-Japan relationship forward.
In April 2009, Obama gave a speech in Prague in which he called for a world without nuclear weapons. Since then, Japanese peace activists, nonproliferation experts, and officials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki have pushed for him to become the first sitting U.S. president to pay his respects at one or both cities.
The highest ranking sitting U.S. official to go to Hiroshima was then U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, third in line to the presidency, who visited in 2008.
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