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Obama Makes Historic Hiroshima Visit


U.S. President Barack Obama (left) hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan on May 27.
U.S. President Barack Obama (left) hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan on May 27.

Barack Obama has traveled to Hiroshima to become the first serving U.S. president to travel to the site of the world's first atomic bomb attack.

After laying a wreath at the cenotaph where an eternal flame remembers Hiroshima's dead, Obama said the world has shared responsibility to ask how such suffering can be prevented from happening again.

The U.S. president had previously said the visit, which follows a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) economic powers in Japan, was to honor all those who died in World War II. He ruled out any apology for the bombing.

A U.S. B-29 bomber dropped a 15-kiloton nuclear bomb on the city on August, 6 1945, killing some 80,000 people instantly.

The bombing -- and a second one on Nagasaki three days later -- is credited with bringing to an early end to World War II.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

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