Obama and Hiroshima

Today the president says he won't be able to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki on his upcoming visit to Japan but hopes to in future -- no sitting president has ever done so. As someone who has written about the atomic bombings for nearly 30 years, and spent a month in the two atomic cities, this is gratifying, if only a promise for now. (I cover the issue of American reaction to the bombings, including views of presidents from Truman on, in the book I wrote with Robert Jay Lifton, Hiroshima in America.) Pressure has grown on Obama to do this from abroad since he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He says, "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."

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