Obama becomes first US president to visit Hiroshima bomb sit

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Barack Obama has became the first sitting US president to visit the site of the world&&num;8217&semi;s first atomic bomb attack&comma; bringing global attention both to survivors and to his unfulfilled vision of a world without nuclear weapons&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Obama touched down in Hiroshima after completing talks with world leaders at the international G7 summit in Shima&comma; Japan&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The visit presents a diplomatic tightrope for a US president trying to make history without ripping open old wounds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Obama planned to make a short speech and pay tribute to the 140&comma;000 people killed in the bombing seven decades ago&period; But the White House has stressed he will not apologise for the attack&comma; which is viewed by many in the US as having hastened the end of the Second World War&semi; others have called it a war crime that targeted civilians&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The president also is expected to renew his push for a world without nuclear weapons&comma; an aspiration for which he received a Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency but has since seen uneven progress&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The White House has said Mr Obama will offer a simple reflection&comma; acknowledging the devastating toll of war and coupling it with a message that the world can &&num;8211&semi; and must &&num;8211&semi; do better&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He will also place a wreath at the centopath&comma; an arched monument in Hiroshima&&num;8217&semi;s Peace Memorial Park honouring those killed on August 6 1945&period; A second atomic bomb&comma; dropped on Nagasaki three days later&comma; killed 70&comma;000 more&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mr Obama will also look forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hiroshima is much more than &&num;8220&semi;a reminder of the terrible toll in World War II and the death of innocents across the continents&&num;8221&semi;&comma; the president said on Thursday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is a place&comma; he said&comma; &&num;8220&semi;to remind ourselves that the job&&num;8217&semi;s not done in reducing conflict&comma; building institutions of peace and reducing the prospect of nuclear war in the future&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Those who come to ground zero at Hiroshima speak of its emotional impact&comma; of the searing imagery of the exposed steel beams on the A-bomb dome&period; The skeletal remains of the exhibition hall have become an international symbol of peace and a place for prayer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The president was accompanied on his visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe &&num;8211&semi; a demonstration of the friendship that exists between the only nation ever to use an atomic bomb and the only nation ever to have suffered from one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bomb survivor Kinuyo Ikegami&comma; 82&comma; paid her own respects at the cenotaph on Friday morning&comma; well before Mr Obama arrived&comma; lighting incense and chanting a prayer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tears ran down her face as she described the immediate aftermath of the bomb&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I could hear schoolchildren screaming &&num;8216&semi;Help me&excl; Help me&excl;'&&num;8221&semi; she said&period; &&num;8220&semi;It was too pitiful&comma; too horrible&period; Even now it fills me with emotion&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Han Jeong-soon&comma; the 58-year-old daughter of a Korean survivor&comma; was also at the park on Friday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The suffering&comma; such as illness&comma; gets carried on over the generations &&num;8211&semi; that is what I want President Obama to know&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period; &&num;8220&semi;I want him to understand our sufferings&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Obama&&num;8217&semi;s visit is a moment 71 years in the making&period; Other American presidents considered it&comma; but the politics were still too sensitive&comma; the emotions too raw&period; Jimmy Carter visited as a former president in 1984&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even now&comma; when polls find 70&percnt; of Japanese people support Mr<br &sol;>&NewLine;Obama&&num;8217&semi;s decision to visit to Hiroshima&comma; the president&&num;8217&semi;s choreographed trip will be analysed by people with many agendas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are political foes at home who are ready to seize on any hint of an unwelcome expression of regret&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are Koreans who want to hear the president acknowledge the estimated 20&comma;000-40&comma;000 of their citizens who were among the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki&period; There are blast survivors who want Mr Obama to listen to their stories&comma; to see their scars &&num;8211&semi; physical and otherwise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are activists looking for a pledge of new&comma; concrete steps to rid the world of nuclear weapons&period; There are American former PoWs who want the president to blame Japan for starting the war in the Pacific&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Obama will try to navigate those obstacles by saying less&comma; not more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The dropping of the bomb&comma; he said on Thursday&comma; &&num;8220&semi;was an inflection point in modern history&period; It is something that all of us have had to deal with in one way or another&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed2e646509d">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; 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