May 18th, according to comprehensive foreign media reports, US President Biden departed for Japan on the 17th Eastern Time to attend the Group of Seven (G7) Hiroshima Summit. The White House said Biden would not apologize for the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan during World War II.
According to the itinerary disclosed by foreign media, Biden will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan during the G7 summit and meet with survivors of the nuclear explosion.
On the 17th local time, at the White House press conference, a reporter asked the US President’s National Security Affairs Assistant Sullivan whether Biden would apologize to Japan on behalf of the United States during his visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Sullivan replied, “No.”
“The president won’t be making a statement at the Peace Memorial Park,” Sullivan said. “He’ll be at the wreath laying and some other events with the other G7 leaders, but it’s not a bilateral moment in the president’s mind. One of the leaders of the Group of Nations, paying tribute to this history and the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.”
According to Kyodo News, Biden will become the second sitting US president to visit Hiroshima after Obama visited Hiroshima in 2016.
Previously, Obama had emphasized his determination to eliminate nuclear weapons, but when he visited Hiroshima in 2016, he did not apologize for the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, nor did he say what was right or wrong about it.
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. The radioactive material, dust, and water vapor produced by the nuclear explosion condensed into “black rain” and landed. People suffer from diseases due to being drenched by the “black rain” or eating water and crops polluted by the “black rain”.
As the rotating presidency of the G7 this year, Japan hopes to take the opportunity to enhance its regional dominance, and at the same time echo and cooperate with the “Indo-Pacific Strategy” of the Biden administration of the United States. However, civil protests against the Japanese government continued one after another. According to reports, the protests of many non-governmental groups in Japan will accompany the entire G7 summit.
