On Friday, May 28, President Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima since the atomic bomb was dropped 70 years prior.
Walter Mondale, Former Vice President and U.S. ambassador to Japan, called
Obama's visit, "one of the biggest events in modern Japanese
history" in an interview with NBC News.
In Japan, the
President spoke to reporters about the 1945 bombing calling it
an "inflection point in modern history" and "something that all
of us have had to deal with in some way or another."(NBC News).
The Daily Mail reports President Obama is officially in
Japan for the 42nd G7 summit. However, his visit to the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Park is what is making headlines. Those in favor call
it an act of diplomacy and empathy, whereas critics refer to it as an
"apology" tour.
According to Two Way National Public Radio News, President Obama delivered a speech and signed the guestbook at the Memorial Park. He was
photographed hugging a survivor of the nuclear blast.
The worlds' first nuclear attack
killed around 140,000 people in Hiroshima, helping to end World War II. The
decision to drop the bomb remains a controversial topic to this day.
Reasoning:
President Obama's visit to Hiroshima
is my selection for this week's top world news story. The visit itself is a
historic moment, thus making the visit all the more newsworthy. As well as the
fact that it is still to this day a heated topic for many people, and the
President's actions while in Japan will be heavily scrutinized even more
considering the sordid history. Also so much of his presence was
expressing complex emotions about the past and what occurred with dropping the
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The visit also became a political talking point about whether or
not the President is practicing diplomacy or if he is apologizing and/or
appeasing the Japanese people.
