Obama to be first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima

US President Barack Obama will make a historic visit later this month to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the White House says.

Obama will travel to Hiroshima — on which the US dropped an atomic bomb during World War II — with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, following a trip to Vietnam and his final G7 summit in Ise-Shima, Japan.

His visit to Hiroshima will “highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the White House said.

Obama will become the first sitting president to visit the memorial.

But the White House said last week that he will not offer an apology for the atomic bombing that killed tens of thousands of residents within seconds on August 6, 1945, and by the end of the year left about 140,000 dead in total from injuries related to the blast.

Three days later, on August 9, another atom bomb was detonated over the port city of Nagasaki. About 40,000 people died on the first day, with 74,000 dead by the end of the year.