ResidentsinHiroshima have greeted President Barack Obama with protests atthe site of the worlds first atomic bombing conducted by the US more than 70 years ago.
Obama arrived at Hiroshima's atomic bomb park Friday on thefirst visit by a sitting US president and wasgreeted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Youre not welcome here and Get out of Hiroshima, the protesters shouted ina rallyheld atthe Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
They held banners that read, Get rid of all nukes immediately, Remove all US bases from Okinawa and We wont let you use military alliances to start your next war.
Among the protesters, there were labor union members, college students as well as survivors and the relatives of the victims of the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, 1945.
I could hear schoolchildren screaming Help me! Help me! said Kinuyo Ikegami, an 82-year old survivor of the bombing, who took part in the Friday gathering.
"It was too pitiful, too horrible. Even now it fills me with emotion, she added.
The suffering such as illness gets carried on over the generation, said HanJeong-soon, the daughter of a Korean survivor.
That is what I want President Obama to know. I want him to understand our sufferings.
Obamahas said he will not apologize for the bombing, which killed thousands instantly, and some 140,000 by that years end.
I want Obama to say Im sorry. If he does, maybe my suffering will ease, said 73-year-old Eiji Hattori, who was a toddler at the time of the bombing and now has three types of cancer.
If Obama apologized, I could die and meet my parents in heaven in peace, he said.
US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Sinzo Abe (L) talk before a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) with other leaders at the city of Shima, in Mie Prefecture, May 26, 2016. (Photo by AFP)Obama'svisit to Hiroshima has stirred heated debate,with criticspointing to paradoxes in policies relying on nucleardeterrence while calling for an end to atomic arms.The city ofNagasaki was hit by a second nuclear bomb on Aug. 9, 1945, andJapan surrendered six days later.
The US justifies the bombings, contending that they werenecessary to end the war and save lives, although manyhistorians question that view and believe they wereunjustified.
Aides say Obama's main objective in Hiroshimais to showcase his nucleardisarmament agenda. However, critics say he hasmade scant progress and is spending heavilyto modernize the USatomic arsenal.
Japan, despite advocating disarmament,relies on the USnuclear umbrella for extended deterrence.
Among the governmentscritical of the visit, North Korea on Fridaydenounced Obamas visit to Hiroshima as an act of stunning hypocrisy and "achildish political calculation."
Even if Obama visits the damaged city, he cannot hide his identity as a nuclear war fanatic and nuclear weapons proliferator, read part of a report on North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
By Press TV
