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| At Hiroshima Memorial, Obama Says Nuclear Arms Require ‘Moral Revolution’ | At Hiroshima Memorial, Obama Says Nuclear Arms Require ‘Moral Revolution’ |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| HIROSHIMA, Japan — President Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on Friday, telling an audience that included survivors of America’s atomic bombing in 1945 that technology as devastating as nuclear arms demands a “moral revolution.” | HIROSHIMA, Japan — President Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on Friday, telling an audience that included survivors of America’s atomic bombing in 1945 that technology as devastating as nuclear arms demands a “moral revolution.” |
| “Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us,” Mr. Obama said, adding that such technology “requires a moral revolution as well.” | “Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us,” Mr. Obama said, adding that such technology “requires a moral revolution as well.” |
| In an emotional moment after his speech, Mr. Obama embraced and shook hands with survivors of the attack, which ushered in the nuclear age and exposed humanity to risks the president believes the world must do far more to resolve. The first of those survivors, Sunao Tsuboi, a chairman of the Hiroshima branch of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, gripped Mr. Obama’s hand and would not let go until he had spoken to him for some time. | In an emotional moment after his speech, Mr. Obama embraced and shook hands with survivors of the attack, which ushered in the nuclear age and exposed humanity to risks the president believes the world must do far more to resolve. The first of those survivors, Sunao Tsuboi, a chairman of the Hiroshima branch of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, gripped Mr. Obama’s hand and would not let go until he had spoken to him for some time. |
| “I held his hand, and we didn’t need an interpreter,” Mr. Tsuboi, 91, said later. “I could understand what he wanted to say by his expression.” | “I held his hand, and we didn’t need an interpreter,” Mr. Tsuboi, 91, said later. “I could understand what he wanted to say by his expression.” |
| For weeks, the White House had refused to say whether Mr. Obama, the first sitting American president to make the trip, would meet survivors. It was a delicate calculus. Many survivors long for an apology for an event that destroyed just about everyone and everything they knew, and there were small demonstrations near the ceremony on Friday by protesters demanding an apology. But Mr. Obama said before his trip that he would not apologize for the attack. | |
| In his speech, Mr. Obama, using the slow and deliberate cadence that he uses on only the most formal and consequential occasions, said that the bombing of Hiroshima demonstrated that “mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.” | In his speech, Mr. Obama, using the slow and deliberate cadence that he uses on only the most formal and consequential occasions, said that the bombing of Hiroshima demonstrated that “mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.” |
| But he said that in the 71 years since the bombing, world institutions had grown up to help prevent a recurrence. Still, nations like the United States continue to possess thousands of nuclear weapons. And that is something that must change, he said. | But he said that in the 71 years since the bombing, world institutions had grown up to help prevent a recurrence. Still, nations like the United States continue to possess thousands of nuclear weapons. And that is something that must change, he said. |
| “We must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them,” he said, although he quickly added: “We may not realize this goal in my lifetime, but persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe.” | “We must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them,” he said, although he quickly added: “We may not realize this goal in my lifetime, but persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe.” |
| Still, he said, more was needed. Noting that far more primitive weapons than nuclear arms are causing widespread destruction today, Mr. Obama called for humanity to change its mind-set about war. | Still, he said, more was needed. Noting that far more primitive weapons than nuclear arms are causing widespread destruction today, Mr. Obama called for humanity to change its mind-set about war. |
| “The world was forever changed here, but today the children of this city will go through their day in peace,” Mr. Obama said. “What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.” | “The world was forever changed here, but today the children of this city will go through their day in peace,” Mr. Obama said. “What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.” |
| People in Asian countries that were brutalized by imperial Japan had warned that a presidential apology at Hiroshima would be inappropriate. Mr. Obama not only did not apologize, he made clear that Japan, despite a highly advanced culture, was to blame for the war, which “grew out of the same base instinct for domination or conquest that had caused conflicts among the simplest tribes.” | People in Asian countries that were brutalized by imperial Japan had warned that a presidential apology at Hiroshima would be inappropriate. Mr. Obama not only did not apologize, he made clear that Japan, despite a highly advanced culture, was to blame for the war, which “grew out of the same base instinct for domination or conquest that had caused conflicts among the simplest tribes.” |
| In his own speech, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said, “This tragedy must not be allowed to occur again.” | In his own speech, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said, “This tragedy must not be allowed to occur again.” |
| “We are determined to realize a world free of nuclear weapons,” he said. | “We are determined to realize a world free of nuclear weapons,” he said. |
| Mr. Obama’s visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park had all the pomp, ceremony and planned choreography of a state visit or a leader’s funeral. With thousands in attendance and much of Japan watching on TV, Mr. Obama walked forward alone at the park and laid a wreath on a white pyramid. He paused before the memorial’s cenotaph, his head bowed. | Mr. Obama’s visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park had all the pomp, ceremony and planned choreography of a state visit or a leader’s funeral. With thousands in attendance and much of Japan watching on TV, Mr. Obama walked forward alone at the park and laid a wreath on a white pyramid. He paused before the memorial’s cenotaph, his head bowed. |
| A moment later, Mr. Abe approached with his own wreath, which he laid beside Mr. Obama’s on another pyramid. After a moment’s reflection, the two leaders shook hands — a clear signal of the extraordinary alliance their two nations had forged out of the ashes of war. | A moment later, Mr. Abe approached with his own wreath, which he laid beside Mr. Obama’s on another pyramid. After a moment’s reflection, the two leaders shook hands — a clear signal of the extraordinary alliance their two nations had forged out of the ashes of war. |
| Mr. Obama’s decision to visit Hiroshima was in part intended to reward Mr. Abe for his efforts to improve ties and forge a closer military relationship between the two countries. A recent rape and murder of a young woman on Okinawa, which the authorities have attributed to a former American Marine, has once again strained those ties, but coordination between the two nations’ militaries continues to intensify. | Mr. Obama’s decision to visit Hiroshima was in part intended to reward Mr. Abe for his efforts to improve ties and forge a closer military relationship between the two countries. A recent rape and murder of a young woman on Okinawa, which the authorities have attributed to a former American Marine, has once again strained those ties, but coordination between the two nations’ militaries continues to intensify. |
| Mr. Obama also saw the visit as a testament to mankind’s ability to forge past even the most intense of enmities. Before arriving in Japan, Mr. Obama visited Vietnam, where he lifted a longstanding arms embargo. | Mr. Obama also saw the visit as a testament to mankind’s ability to forge past even the most intense of enmities. Before arriving in Japan, Mr. Obama visited Vietnam, where he lifted a longstanding arms embargo. |
| The Hiroshima visit, under consideration since the first days of Mr. Obama’s presidency, could send ripples across Asia, a region still grappling with the echoes of World War II seven decades after it ended. Leaders in both China and South Korea worry that Mr. Obama’s visit to Japan’s deepest wound could be taken by the Japanese as an endpoint to their country’s fitful efforts to come to grips with their own wartime atrocities. | The Hiroshima visit, under consideration since the first days of Mr. Obama’s presidency, could send ripples across Asia, a region still grappling with the echoes of World War II seven decades after it ended. Leaders in both China and South Korea worry that Mr. Obama’s visit to Japan’s deepest wound could be taken by the Japanese as an endpoint to their country’s fitful efforts to come to grips with their own wartime atrocities. |
| But with a reclusive regime in North Korea furiously building more nuclear weapons and trying to perfect the missiles to deliver them, Mr. Obama decided that reminding the world why the North must be stopped was worth any hurt feelings among other countries. | But with a reclusive regime in North Korea furiously building more nuclear weapons and trying to perfect the missiles to deliver them, Mr. Obama decided that reminding the world why the North must be stopped was worth any hurt feelings among other countries. |
| Many historians believe the bombings on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, which together took the lives of more than 200,000 people, on balance saved lives, since an invasion of the islands would have led to far greater bloodshed. But the 30-acre Peace Memorial Park that Mr. Obama visited reflects none of that background. | Many historians believe the bombings on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, which together took the lives of more than 200,000 people, on balance saved lives, since an invasion of the islands would have led to far greater bloodshed. But the 30-acre Peace Memorial Park that Mr. Obama visited reflects none of that background. |
| The park offers a victim’s narrative, illustrating in gut-wrenching detail how more than 100,000 people in the city perished and thousands more were injured. It provides few of the historical reasons for the bombing, such as descriptions of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the savagery of Japan’s occupation of China, or the extraordinary death toll of soldiers and civilians in the invasion of Okinawa. | The park offers a victim’s narrative, illustrating in gut-wrenching detail how more than 100,000 people in the city perished and thousands more were injured. It provides few of the historical reasons for the bombing, such as descriptions of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the savagery of Japan’s occupation of China, or the extraordinary death toll of soldiers and civilians in the invasion of Okinawa. |
| A short inscription on the park’s memorial arch reads, in part, “We shall not repeat the evil.” Which evil — the bombing or the conflict itself — and who is to blame are left unsaid. | A short inscription on the park’s memorial arch reads, in part, “We shall not repeat the evil.” Which evil — the bombing or the conflict itself — and who is to blame are left unsaid. |
| Such failures by the Japanese to acknowledge their own role in the bombings has long bothered the Chinese, Koreans and others who suffered under the empire’s rule. And with Mr. Abe as Mr. Obama’s host, those wounded feelings could fester. Mr. Abe has promoted a version of history that plays down Japan’s wartime transgressions, and he has moved to give the military limited powers to fight in foreign conflicts, shedding pacifist constraints in place since World War II. | Such failures by the Japanese to acknowledge their own role in the bombings has long bothered the Chinese, Koreans and others who suffered under the empire’s rule. And with Mr. Abe as Mr. Obama’s host, those wounded feelings could fester. Mr. Abe has promoted a version of history that plays down Japan’s wartime transgressions, and he has moved to give the military limited powers to fight in foreign conflicts, shedding pacifist constraints in place since World War II. |
| The Chinese government suggested on Friday that the wartime atrocities committed by Japan on Chinese soil, notably in the city of Nanjing, deserved more attention than the bombing of Hiroshima. President Park Geun-hye of South Korea has not commented on Mr. Obama’s visit and is on a tour of several African countries. | The Chinese government suggested on Friday that the wartime atrocities committed by Japan on Chinese soil, notably in the city of Nanjing, deserved more attention than the bombing of Hiroshima. President Park Geun-hye of South Korea has not commented on Mr. Obama’s visit and is on a tour of several African countries. |