Obama to visit Hiroshima on May 27

The White House announced that President Barack Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit the site of the U.S. atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima, Japan.

According to CNN, the visit fulfills a wish Obama had expressed early in his presidency to visit the location where thousands of Japanese civilians were killed in a nuclear blast at the end of World War II.

However, the White House has asserted that the United States does not owe Japan a formal apology for using the atomic bomb in August 1945, instead, officials say that the visit will serve as a reminder of the horrific destruction that nuclear weapons can inflict.

"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," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, wrote on Medium Tuesday.

Rhodes added that Obama would deliver remarks on nuclear non-proliferation -- a central tenet of the President's foreign policy -- during the stop in Hiroshima, which is scheduled for May 27.

In Hiroshima, Obama will tour the Peace Memorial Park, constructed atop the busy commercial district obliterated by the bomb.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest-ranking U.S. official to pay respects at the site, and hinted that Obama would soon make his own visit.