US President Barack Obama’s presence in Hiroshima, the victim of the world’s first atomic bombing, was statesmanship rich in symbolism. A few former American Presidents have visited the city, notably Jimmy Carter, but Mr Obama on Friday became the first sitting US President to visit the city that Harry S. Truman had atomic-bombed in 1945.
Mr Obama hugged a Hiroshima survivor and gave a good speech, as he often does, speaking of death falling from the sky and of the terrible danger the world is in today because of nuclear stockpiles. Obama’s gesture is an effort to demonstrate America’s ties with Japan, and the big boy in the neighbourhood, China, has not failed to react. Note Beijing’s statement about Hiroshima being important, but it being even more important not to forget Nanjing, often referred to in history texts as the “Rape of Nanking” by Imperial Japan.
Mr Obama offered no apology for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It would have been well-nigh impossible. The bombings, though they were terrible, ended a horrific world war not of America’s making, one that had already cost millions of lives. Very few have ever apologised.
The British have yet to express regret for the Raj in India. If the excesses of previous ages require expressions of regret, Macedonia and Rome would be saying sorry East, West, North and South, and Mongolia would be on its knees all the way to Poland.
