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US President Barack Obama speaks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington

On May 28, US President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima. The president of the only country that has used nuclear weapons is in the global spotlight for deciding to visit one of the cities destroyed by those weapons 71 years ago.

Obama’s stated purpose for the trip is not without its merits. Since becoming president, he has worked to keep his promise to create a world without nuclear weapons, and this visit can be construed as being part of those efforts.

But the limitations of the trip are evident. First of all, Japan’s right wing - represented by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - is clearly trying to take advantage of Obama’s trip to portray Japan as a victim and to obscure its historical responsibility. The right wing is heralding the trip itself as a triumph for Japanese foreign policy.

Another problem is the US government’s position that the visit does not imply an apology for dropping the bomb. While the US may have been at war, ending the lives of more than 200,000 civilians all at once was a big mistake. It would be appropriate for the US to apologize to the victims and their families.

The important thing is to clearly hold Japan responsible - by which we mean Japan the aggressor, not Japan the victim. During World War II and the period of colonial rule that preceded it, Japan inflicted immense suffering on the countries of Asia. Though more than 70 years have passed since then, Japan has been slow to make amends for these actions.

Furthermore, the Abe administration is even trying to neutralize Japan’s Peace Constitution. This visit must not be used to create tolerance for this attitude.

South Korea is the country with the second greatest number of nuclear casualties in the world. 70,000 Koreans were victims of the nuclear attacks, with 40,000 who died. The majority of them had been brought to Japan as forced laborers. The Japanese government has only emphasized its own victims while acting as if the Korean victims do not exist.

For the US to press Japan to take responsibility for its past actions would conform to the principle of historical justice. Such pressure should accompany Obama’s visit to Hiroshima.

Instead of holding the Japanese Empire responsible for its war crimes and colonial rule, the US has regarded its alliance with Japan as a pillar of its Asian strategy. As part of its policy of rebalancing to Asia, the US is now putting even more weight on this alliance.

Japan is responding enthusiastically to these American actions as it attempts to free itself of responsibility for its past actions. Asian countries believe that Obama‘s visit to Hiroshima will only aggravate these tendencies

Obama is probably aware of the concerns that are being raised about his visit. What is clear is that his trip will only bear fruit if the message that it sends is acceptable to the countries that were victims of the Japanese Empire.

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