American Newspapers Advocate Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima
Which country should abolish nuclear weaponry?
With U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the Hiroshima war memorial many U.S. newspapers have started to advocate President Obama’s potential visit to the same site.
The article “From Hiroshima to a Nuke-Free World” in The New York Times published April 12 by the Editorial Board, stated “Now that Mr. Kerry has paved the way, there should be nothing keeping President Obama” from visiting Hiroshima. It added that Obama should take this chance to endorse antinuclear proposals.
The Washington Post Editorial Board published the article “Why Mr. Obama Should Visit Hiroshima” on April 15. This article said that Obama should visit Hiroshima “and lay out the work remaining to ensure another seven decades of nuclear peace”. It also, however, suggested that he “do so without passing judgment” on the use of the atom bomb.
The liberal New York Times and the conservative Washington Post both do indeed advocate Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, but they also see no need for an apology to Japan.
An Article that declares an Apology
On the digital edition of a newspaper based in New York City, the New York Daily News, published the article “President Obama should apologize when he visits atom bomb site in Hiroshima” on April 14. The article states that the atom bombs killed around “250,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians.” The article implores Obama to say “That was wrong, and on behalf of the American people, I say. ‘I’m sorry.’ ”
President Obama is considering a visit to Hiroshima when he arrives in Japan for the next G7 summit in May. He will probably decide on whether he should visit the site depending on public opinions within Japan.
Nuclear Abolition Should be Imposed upon North Korea and China
Master Ryuho Okawa, founder of Happy Science, gave a public lecture entitled “Becoming the Pioneers in History” on the 17th of April in Kyoto. He spoke on nuclear weapons thusly:
“The Secretary of State did visit Hiroshima and to paraphrase said ‘We must not allow this to happen again’, but the subject is missing. We don’t know if he means ‘the devastation upon the Japanese’ or ‘the dropping of the bomb’ or ‘for a country to possess nuclear weapons.’
“Please impose nuclear abolition not only on Japan but on countries that actually possess nuclear weapons. Tell China and North Korea to discard their nuclear weapons. If this cannot be done, we must think of a way we can compete with those weapons. Otherwise we cannot protect our own country.”
The U.S. newspapers advocating Obama’s visit to Hiroshima reflect on the realization of how wrong it was to drop the atom bomb now spreading amongst the American people. It is about time that the U.S. government own up to their crime. From there stretches the path to abolishing nuclear weapons in China and North Korea.
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