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HIROSHIMA, Japan, April 11 (Reuters) - John Kerry on Monday became the first U.S. secretary of state to pay his respects at Hiroshima’s memorial to victims of the 1945 U.S. nuclear attack, raising speculation that U.S. President Barack Obama might make his own visit in May.
Following the visit by Kerry and his counterparts from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies, the ministers issued a statement reaffirming their commitment to building a world without nuclear arms, but said the push had been made more complex by North Korea’s repeated provocations and by the worsening security in Syria and Ukraine.
Kerry toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum, whose haunting displays include photographs of badly burned victims, the tattered and stained clothes they wore and statues depicting them with flesh melting from their limbs.
While he is not the highest-ranking U.S. official to have toured the museum and memorial park, a distinction that belongs to then-U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in 2008, Kerry is the most senior executive branch official to visit.
Read more @: John Kerry Makes Historic Visit To Hiroshima Memorial
I will always contend that we should of never dropped these weapons on Japan, but this is none-the-less a historic and symbolic gesture from the US government.