US to attend Hiroshima anniversary for first time
Candles float in the Motoyasu River before the Peace Memorial Park
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
The United States has confirmed that the ambassador to Japan will attend a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Hiroshima atom bomb drop for the first time.
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US State Department, said it would be the first time a US ambassador will attend the August 6 anniversary.
About 140,000 people were killed or died within months when an American B-29 bombed Hiroshima.
Mr Crowley would not say if US officials would attend ceremonies in Nagasaki, where 80,000 people died after the United States attacked three days later. Japan surrendered on Aug 15, ending World War II.
Embassy officials from wartime allies and currently nuclear-armed Britain and France also plan to attend the event for the first time, state broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said, citing unidentified diplomatic sources.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will also attend the ceremony this year, becoming the first chief of the world body to do so…
Many Japanese – including survivors of both atomic bombings known as “hibakusha” – hope Mr Obama will visit Hiroshima in November when he travels to Japan for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
In a related note [does that sound diplomatic enough], I believe the people of China are still awaiting a visit from Japan’s head of state at the ceremonies honoring the anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.
300,000 Chinese were murdered by invading Japanese soldiers – well before the United States entered the war in the Pacific.
