Obama to visit Hiroshima, where US dropped first atomic bomb

As president of the only country to have used nuclear weapons, Barack Obama will make a historic visit to Hiroshima, Japan, where the US first dropped the atomic bomb nearly 71 years ago.

Obama will visit the site of the world’s first nuclear bombing and meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the White House said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes wrote on the social media website Medium on Tuesday that the president will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a site built in the memory of the people who lost their lives in the bombing on August 6, 1945 during World War II.

About 140,000 people were killed in the bombing which was followed by another US atomic bombing on the port city of Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people on August 9.

Obama’s visit to the city would…

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