Kerry visits Hiroshima but offers no US apology for atom bombs

 LONDON - Becoming the first sitting US secretary of state to visit the Hiroshima memorial, John Kerry spoke against atom bombs and war, but stopped short of an apology and offered no indication of any change in America’s policy on nuclear weapons.

“Everyone in the world should see and feel the power of this memorial. It is a stark, harsh, compelling reminder not only of our obligation to end the threat of nuclear weapons, but to rededicate all our effort to avoid war itself," Kerry wrote in a message in the site's guestbook, according to CNN.

“War must be the last resort -- never the first choice. This memorial compels us all to redouble our efforts to change the world, to find peace and build the future so yearned for by citizens everywhere," he said.

The bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II are the only instances of the use of nuclear weapons by any country in history.

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945 killed some 140,000 people. Another dropped on the port city of Nagasaki three days later killed about 70,000 Japanese.

Kerry visited a memorial to the atrocity in Hiroshima, accompanied by European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and other foreign ministers from the Group of Seven, who are in Japan for two days of talks.

“It is a stunning display, it is a gut-wrenching display,” Kerry told reporters after touring a museum containing exhibits of the bomb and its devastation. 

“It tugs at all of your sensibilities as a human being. It reminds everybody of the extraordinary complexity of choices of war and what war does to people, to communities, countries, the world,” he said.

“I don’t see how anyone could forget the images, the evidence, the recreations of what happened,” he added, urging all world leaders to visit the site.

In Japan, anti-nuclear activist groups have long campaigned for US and other leaders to visit, as a step toward abolishing nuclear weapons.

CNN quoted an unidentified senior State Department official traveling with Kerry as saying before the museum tour that an apology for the bombings was not on the cards.

“If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologize, the answer is no," the official said. "If you are asking whether the secretary -- and I think all Americans and all Japanese -- are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes."