President Obama will make a historic trip this month to Hiroshima, Japan, becoming first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world’s first atomic bombing.
The White House formally announced the visit Tuesday after weeks of speculation that Obama would stop in the city after attending the Group of 7 economic summit in Ise-Shima from May 25-27. The president is expected to deliver a speech on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will join Obama on the visit where the president will "highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," the White House said in a statement.
Obama aide have ruled out a presidential apology for the U.S. decision to drop the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, which killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb killed up to 80,000 people in Nagasaki.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said in a blog post. "Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future."
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