Hiroshima memory must never fade, says Barack Obama

27 May 2016 3:17 PM IST

Obama has become the first serving US president to visit Hiroshima since the World War II nuclear attack.

Barack Obama on Friday paid moving tribute to victims of the world's first nuclear attack during a historic visit to Hiroshima.
'Why did we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in the not-so-distant past. We come to mourn the dead,' Obama said to the assembled crowd
The world was forever changed here but, today, the children of this city will go through their day in peace,' Obama was quoted as saying.
The president lowered his head and closed his eyes as he paused for a moment's contemplation, before withdrawing and watching Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe do the same.
Obama, wearing a dark suit, looked sombre as he offered a wreath at the cenotaph, in the shadow of a wrecked building that stands in silent tribute to the dead.
Obama and Abe arrive for a wreath-laying ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.
Obama, whose predecessor Harry Truman made the decision to launch the world's first nuclear strike, greeted ageing survivors and embraced one elderly man who appeared overcome with emotion.
The bomb demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself'.
'71 years ago, death fell from the sky and the world was changed,' the president said after laying a wreath, as he became the first sitting US leader to visit the site.

Barack Obama on Friday paid moving tribute to victims of the world\'s first nuclear attack during a historic visit to Hiroshima.

Obama has become the first serving US president to visit Hiroshima since the World War II nuclear attack.