Obama Pays Visit to Hiroshima

Local Editor

US President Barack Obama paid moving tribute to victims of the first atomic bomb Friday and called for a world free of nuclear weapons, during a historic and emotional visit to Hiroshima.

In a ceremony loaded with symbolism, the first sitting US president to visit the city met survivors of the fearsome attack that marked one of the final, terrifying chapters of World War II.

"71 years ago, death fell from the sky and the world was changed," Obama said of a bomb that "demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself".

He further added: "Why did we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in the not-so-distant past. We come to mourn the dead."

Obama, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, offered a floral wreath in front of the cenotaph before pausing in momentary contemplation, closing his eyes and lowering his head.

The site lies in the shadow of a domed building, whose skeleton has been left standing in silent testament to those who perished.

Abe followed by offering his own wreath and a brief, silent bow.

After both men had spoken, Obama, whose predecessor Harry Truman made the decision to launch the world's first nuclear strike, greeted ageing survivors and embraced one elderly man who appeared overcome with emotion.

He also chatted with a smiling Sunao Tsuboi, 91, who had earlier said he wanted to tell the US president how grateful he was for his visit.

The trip comes more than seven decades after the Enola Gay bomber dropped its deadly atomic payload, dubbed "Little Boy", over the western Japanese city.

The bombing claimed the lives of 140,000 people, some of whom died immediately in a ball of searing heat, while many succumbed to injuries or radiation-related illnesses in the weeks, months and years afterwards.

A second nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days later.

Coming in Obama's final year in office, the visit also marks seven years since he used his trademark soaring rhetoric to call for the elimination of atomic arms in a landmark speech in Prague that helped him win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team