US President May Visit Hiroshima Commemoration in Future

A US president could potentially participate in a ceremony in Hiroshima to commemorate lives of people killed in the US atomic bombing in 1954, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a briefing on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On August 6, 1945, the US atomic bomb "Little Boy” detonated about 2,000 feet above Hiroshima killing around 140,000 people. Another bomb, "Fat Man" was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9.

“I certainly would not rule out that kind of possibility into the future, but there has been a robust debate…about the propriety of a presidential visit,” Earnest said when asked if a US president would attend a commemoration ceremony in Hiroshima.

Earnest noted US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, as well as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Rose Gottemoeller attended the commemorative event at Hiroshima earlier on Thursday.

“They are planning to attend the Nagasaki peace memorial service,” he added.

The world marks Hiroshima Day and the International Day of Nuclear Disarmament on August 6.

According to the survey by Populus conducted for Sputnik, some 60 percent of respondents in Japan think Washington should offer an official apology to the victims of the nuclear bombings, while only 11 percent say that an apology is not necessary.