Kerry's Visit to Hiroshima Nuclear Site Tests Waters for Obama
- He becomes top-ranked U.S. official to visit atomic bomb site
- Kerry, G-7 ministers make call for nuclear disarmament
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, is shown the way by Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida after laying a wreath at the Memorial Cenotaph for the 1945 atomic bombing victims in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on April 11, 2016.
Photographer: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP via Getty ImagesSeventy-one years after a U.S. atomic bomb devastated the city of Hiroshima, John Kerry become the first incumbent Secretary of State to pay tribute to the tens of thousands of victims in the western Japanese city.
Kerry, the highest-ranked U.S. official to visit the site, placed a wreath of white flowers at a monument in the city’s peace memorial park on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of 7 foreign ministers. His British and French counterparts also paid their respects -- the first time that serving foreign ministers of nuclear powers will commemorate one of the final acts of World War II. The ministers also toured the peace museum, which features graphic images of the aftermath of the bombing.