Obama+to+be+the+First+Sitting+President+to+Visit+Hiroshima

Bella Farkas May 10, 2016 Social Studies / CE   Mod 3

News: Analyzing Two Sources - President Barack Obama to Visit Hiroshima, Japan Harris, G., Hirschfeld Davis, J. and Soblemay, J. (2016, May, 10). Obama to Be First Sitting President to Visit Hiroshima. __New York Times__. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/us/politics/obama-hiroshima-visit.html?_r=0: May 10, 2016 Associated Press. (2016, May, 10). Obama to visit Hiroshima as part of Japan trip. __Fox News__. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/10/obama-to-visit-hiroshima-as-part-japan-visit.html: May 10, 2016


 * Compare and Contrast: **

President Barack Obama is preparing to visit Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the atomic bombing by the United States that ended World War II. In doing so, President Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit this site.. While some have seen this move by President Obama as an apology by the United States, Benjamin J. Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, told reporters that “he [President Obama] will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II,” adding that “In making this visit, the president will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war.”

Since the beginning of Obama’s presidency he has had his emphasis “on reducing the spread of nuclear weapons.” This has included visits to the Middle East and Europe, and both the Associated Press from Fox News and Gardiner Harris, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Jonathan Soble of the New York Times believe that visiting Hiroshima is an important next step for President Obama, as well as this country as a whole. The Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, noted that “Japan is the only country to be hit by a nuclear weapon,” saying that as a country they “have a responsibility to make sure that terrible experience is never repeated anywhere.”


 * Opinions On the News Stories: **

I believe that this visit by President Barack Obama is good for our country. After completing a deal last year that lifted “sanctions on Iran in exchange for new restrictions on Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear bomb,” and now as the President’s eight years in office draws to a close, President Obama is moving on to another important discussion involving our country. It is a message focused on peace and emphasizes the toll of nuclear war. Frankly, it’s about time that our country addresses the devastation caused by the atomic bomb that we dropped on Japan. As Mr. Rhodes writes, “The President’s time in Hiroshima also will reaffirm America’s longstanding commitment — and the President’s personal commitment — to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” I greatly respect our President for his efforts in limiting the spread of nuclear weapons across the world and taking the bold move to visit Japan to reaffirm his message.

**Sources:**

The New York Times- WASHINGTON — President Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, the White House announced on Tuesday, making a fraught stop this month at the site where the United States dropped an atomic bomb at the end of World War II. The visit, hotly debated in the White House for months as the president planned a trip to Vietnam and Japan, carries weighty symbolism for Mr. Obama, who is loath to be seen as apologizing for that chapter in American history. “He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, his deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, said in a blog post on Medium. “Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future.” “In making this visit, the president will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war,” Mr. Rhodes added in the blog post. Mr. Obama’s critics have often accused him of making an “apology tour” during the first year of his presidency, pointing to his travels to the Middle East and Europe during that period, when he gave a series of speeches acknowledging past misdeeds by the United States and seeking to rebuild ties frayed at the end of the Bush administration. But the president’s advisers say a trip to Hiroshima is in keeping with his emphasis on reducing the spread of nuclear weapons, including through a deal completed last year to lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for new restrictions on Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear bomb. “The president’s time in Hiroshima also will reaffirm America’s longstanding commitment — and the president’s personal commitment — to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” Mr. Rhodes wrote. Japanese officials avoided any suggestion that they viewed the visit as tantamount to an American apology. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe framed it as a chance to honor the dead and support the cause of nuclear disarmament. “Japan is the only country to be hit by a nuclear weapon, and we have a responsibility to make sure that terrible experience is never repeated anywhere,” Mr. Abe said. The mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, welcomed the visit but said in a statement he wanted Mr. Obama to outline “concrete steps” to further the cause of disarmament. Last year, on the 70th anniversary of the bombing, Mr. Matsui accused “selfish” nuclear powers, including the United States, of standing in the way of that cause by insisting on maintaining their arsenals. Sunao Tsuboi, 91, a leading antinuclear activist in Hiroshima, who was burned by the bomb blast on Aug. 6, 1945, also welcomed Mr. Obama’s visit, which he said he hoped would “project a broad antinuclear message.” “I was one of the first people who said Obama should visit Hiroshima,” he told NHK, Japan’s national public broadcaster. “Good for him for coming.” For decades, American diplomats largely avoided Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese city where the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Aug. 9, 1945. That changed in August 2010, when John V. Roos, the American ambassador at the time, attended a commemoration in Hiroshima. His successor, Caroline Kennedy, has also attended. Former President Jimmy Carter toured the Hiroshima memorial in May 1984, three years and four months after he left office, and Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, visited the memorial in 2008 when she was speaker of the House. ___ Fox News- WASHINGTON – In a moment seven decades in the making, President Barack Obama this month will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb, decimated a city and shot the world into the Atomic Age. Obama will visit the site with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a previously scheduled trip to Japan, the White House announced Tuesday. The president intends to "highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Obama will not apologize, the White House made clear. The president's visit has been widely anticipated since U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to the memorial to the Hiroshima bombing in April. Kerry toured the peace museum with other foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and participated in an annual memorial service just steps from the site's ground zero. Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui praised Obama's plan to visit as a "bold decision based on conscience and rationality," adding that he hopes Obama will have a chance to hear the survivors' stories. He also expressed hope the visit would be "a historic first step toward an international effort toward abolishing nuclear weapons, which is a wish of all mankind." The U.S. attack on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, in the final days of World War II, killed 140,000 people. While it scarred a generation of Japanese, many Americans believe the bombing, along with another Aug. 9 on the city of Nagasaki miles away, hastened the end of the war. Japan announced it would surrender on Aug. 15. Diverging views about an act that forever changed war have made a visit from a sitting U.S. president a delicate and arguably politically risky move. It took 65 years for a U.S. ambassador to attend the annual memorial service. Still, Japanese survivors' groups and anti-nuclear advocates have continued to press U.S. officials on the issue in an effort to illustrate the devastation of nuclear weapons. In the U.S., officials remain wary that such a visit could be perceived as an apology for an act believed to have saved American lives. Early in his presidency, Obama said he would be honored to make the trip, and the White House has said it often considered a visit on previous trips to Asia. It has not explained why a visit there has never come together. Asked last week whether the president believes an apology is warranted, Earnest was direct: "No, he does not." In a statement posted as the visit was announced, a senior White House official added that the president does not intend to wade into past debates. "He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said. "The United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world. Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude." Obama will be in Japan to attend the Group of 7 economic summit, part of a weeklong Asia tour that will also include a stop in Vietnam.