Japanese are welcoming President Barack Obama's decision to visit the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima, and those interviewed Wednesday said they aren't seeking an apology.
They expressed happiness that he plans to stop at the memorial for victims of the 1945 bombing after attending the annual Group of Seven summit in Japan.
"I don't live in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but I am overcome with emotion when I think that someone who wants to offer understanding is finally about to arrive," said Mieko Mori, a 74-year-old woman who stopped at a memorial in Tokyo to pray for the victims.
Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, a city almost entirely destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb in the final days of World War II. Some 140,000 people were killed, and others have endured after-effects to this day.
The U.S. dropped a second devastating atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later. Japan announced it would surrender soon after, on Aug. 15, 1945.
A poll released this week by national broadcaster NHK found that 70 percent of Japanese want Obama to visit Hiroshima, and only two percent were opposed.
"I hear America is still divided over atomic bombings, but it's been almost 71 years since the war ended, and I think it's about time Obama should be able to visit Hiroshima," said Kohachiro Hayashi, who was reading a newspaper at a Tokyo park.
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"He wouldn't have been able to come in the middle of his term, but now it's almost the end, so it's like now or never," the retired teacher said.
Hayashi, 59, said if Japan were to ask for an apology, that would only cause an endless and fruitless debate over who should take blame for various wartime acts.
"We should just accept his visit as a gesture of sincerity," he said. "It's OK as long as he makes clear his commitment never to use atomic weapons. ... I hope he will learn what happened and feel a little bit of it himself while being there."
Another retired teacher said it would be rude to demand an apology.
"Japan was also trying to develop nuclear weapons," Takatsugu Sakamoto, 80, said by telephone from Nishinomiya in Osaka prefecture. "Americans were just faster. If Japan hadn't been trying, then it might make sense. And so to those who are demanding an apology, my response is: What in the world are you saying? Mr. Obama doesn't need to apologize."
After the visit was announced Tuesday, the White House went out its way to stress Obama will not apologize.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama would "not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb," and instead spotlight the toll of war and offer a forward-looking vision of a non-nuclear world.
