Sullivan: Biden won't apologize for Hiroshima during memorial visit
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G7 leaders, including Biden, are scheduled to visit on Saturday the city's Peace Memorial Museum, which showcases the atrocities of the US nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
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An atomic cloud billows, following the explosion of the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare in Hiroshima, Japan, in this handout photo taken by the US Army on August 6, 1945 (Reuters)
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has declared that President Joe Biden will not be apologizing during his visit to the G7 summit and to the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the atomic bombs in 1945 that massacred over 200,000 people.
When asked about a potential apology, Sullivan responded while traveling on Air Force One to the summit with a clear "No!" adding, "The President won't be making a statement at the Peace Memorial Park. He'll be participating with the other G7 leaders in a wreath-laying and a few other events. But this is not, from his perspective, a bilateral moment. This is him, as one of the G7 leaders, coming to pay respects".
At a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked the same question, to which Kirby responded in the same nature as Sullivan and insisted that the president's visit is not focused on the past, but is "about the future."
"The president plans to visit the memorial and to pay his respects to the lives of the innocents who were killed in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima," Kirby added.
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'A world without nuclear weapons'
Hiroshima's nuclear bomb - known as "Little Boy" killed 140,000 people, while that of Nagasaki called "Fat Man" killed around 74,000 people in Nagasaki, on the last days of World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to address the issue of nuclear weapons and push for including a pledge on the matter in the G7 talks, media outlets reported, as the leaders are scheduled to visit on Saturday the city's Peace Memorial Museum, which showcases the atrocities of the nuclear attacks.
Remainders of children's possessions - such as ripped school uniforms and lunch boxes - are among the exhibited items, which US President Joe Biden will be observing throughout his tour along with other G7 leaders.
Kishida expressed his desire for “a world without nuclear weapons” ahead of the summit, but critics called him out for making these claims despite Japan refusing to sign a 2021 UN treaty banning the possession and use of nuclear arms, and Tokyo's presence under the United State's nuclear umbrella.
“I believe the first step toward any nuclear disarmament effort is to provide a first-hand experience of the consequences of the atomic bombing and to firmly convey the reality,” Kishida said of the planned visit to the museum.
Barack Obama was the first American president to visit the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima in 2016, and he did not apologize either.
The G7 summit will be taking place in Hiroshima from May 19-21.
