U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday visited a peace park marking the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing in the Japan city of Hiroshima, the first top U.S. minister to do so, focusing attention on whether President Barack Obama will follow suit when he visits Japan later in the year.
In a symbolic gesture, Kerry offered flowers at a cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims in the Peace Memorial Park, along with his counterparts from Britain and France, the two other nuclear weapons states in the Group of Seven framework.
Kerry said his visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima was a “gut-wrenching” reminder of the need to get rid of nuclear weapons. John Kerry made the comments at a press conference after laying a wreath at the city’s atomic bomb memorial. He is the first US secretary of state ever to visit the memorial or the city.
Around 140,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed when the US dropped its atomic bomb on the city in 1945. Mr Kerry was joined by Foreign Ministers from the G7 group of nations who are holding talks in the city. They laid wreaths at the memorial and observed a minute of silence.
Mr Kerry previously said his time in Hiroshima would revisit the past and honour those who perished but stressed that his trip was about the present and the future. It also comes amid efforts to strengthen the relationship between the US and Japan, particularly with growing concern about China’s assertiveness in territorial disputes in Asia, affecting Japan and other US allies.