Hiroshima, Nagasaki Survivors Demand Obama Apology

Barack Obama on Friday became the first incumbent U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, site of the world's first atomic bombing, with many survivors hoping for an apology and a firm commitment to worldwide nuclear disarmament, report Reuters.

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Terumi Tanaka, a native of Nagasaki who was 13 when the bomb hit three days after the initial August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, said on Thursday an apology for the human suffering would be welcome. Though he was unharmed, he vividly recalls searching the blackened city and piles of bodies for family members.

"We would definitely like an apology to people who lost their lives, those who lost loved ones, parents who lost their children," Tanaka, who heads a national organization of bombing survivors, told a news conference.

Obama avoided any direct expression of remorse or apology for the bombings, despite the bomb dropped on Hiroshima killing thousands of people instantly and about 140,000 by the end of the year. About 27,000 people were killed instantly in Nagasaki when another bomb was dropped, and about 70,000 by the end of the year.

The event is viewed through many prisms. Those in the United States often say that the bombings were required to end World War II. The prevailing narrative within the U.S. is that the Japanese appeared ready to continue fighting, although many historians note that by the time the bombs were dropped, the Imperial Japanese Army was at a point of complete exhaustion.

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Many members of the international community view the widespread civilian death and environmental damage incurred by the blasts as crimes against humanity.

Obama's main goal in Hiroshima was to showcase his nuclear disarmament agenda, for which he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

"I'm afraid I did not hear anything concrete about how he plans to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons," said Miki Tsukishita, 75.

"A-bomb survivors including me are getting older. Just cheering his visit is not enough."