国际英语新闻:Obama to visit Hiroshima: Japanese gov't

TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government announced on Tuesday that U.S. President Barack Obama will make a visit to Hiroshima during his stay in Japan for the Group of Seven (G7) summit.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said that Obama would visit Hiroshima accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 27 after attending the two-day G7 summit.

Obama will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit a city leveled by an atomic bomb, an action expected to arouse controversy in the United States as it is widely believed that the atomic bombings were necessary to make Japan surrender and thus save more lives.

Japan has been earnest to make the Obama visit to Hiroshima come true and claimed that the reason for it to push for such a visit is to call for a nuclear-free world.

However, many believe that Japan, by highlighting the tragedy of Hiroshima while ignoring the sufferings of countries brutalized by Japan before and during WWII, is only trying to downplay its role as an aggressor and rewrite itself as a victim.

To accelerate Japan's surrender in the World War II, the U.S. forces dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces on Aug. 15, 1945, bringing an end to the war.