Obama is the first U.S. commander-in-chief to visit Hiroshima since the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb there Aug. 6, 1945.
It remains, more than 45 years later, an iconic image: West German Chancellor Willy Brandt silently and unexpectedly dropping to his knees while laying a wreath at a monument to the victims of the Warsaw ghetto uprising in Poland.
Brandt's spontaneous act in December 1970 became a symbol of atonement for World War II atrocities and set in motion a broader wave of reconciliation across Europe.
On Friday, President Obama participates in the latest episode of a long healing process from World War II, when he becomes the first U.S. commander-in-chief to visit Hiroshima since the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb there Aug. 6, 1945.
In the seven decades since, the United States and Japan have become strong allies, and White House aides have emphasized that there will be no Brandt-style expression of regret or apology. Japanese officials, and many A-bomb survivors in Hiroshima, have said none is needed.
But elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region, efforts at reconciliation between the great powers have been slower, and Obama's appearance in 30-acre Peace Memorial Park comes at a time of tenuous progress over the past year. Among the president's goals will be to highlight the ability of onetime enemies to resolve old wounds and move forward as partners -- and perhaps open the door to more symbolic, trust-building gestures among leaders in the region.
On the eve of his visit, Obama, attending an economic summit in this seaside resort town, called the use of atomic bombs an "inflection point in modern history" and said the fate of such weapons "is something that all of us have had to deal with in one way or another."
He added that "the backdrop of a nuclear event remains something that presses on the back of our imaginations. I do think part of the reason I'm going is because I want to once again underscore the very real risks that are out there and the sense of urgency that we all should have. It's not just a reminder of the terrible toll of World War II and the deaths of innocents across continents, but also serves to remind ourselves that the job's not done."
Though he was talking about nuclear nonproliferation, Obama also could have been referring to unfinished business in mending the deeply entrenched mistrust in the region. Obama's tone and message are being closely monitored well beyond Japan, and not just in the United States, where Republicans could pounce if he appears remorseful about President Harry Truman's decision to authorize the bombing of Hiroshima and, later, Nagasaki.
In South Korea and China, and throughout Southeast Asia, where the imperial Japanese military brutalized and enslaved millions, government leaders have continued to call on Tokyo to offer full and unmitigated atonement for the war crimes -- and in some cases financial restitution to its victims. And they have loudly objected to efforts from the Japanese, ultimately defeated by the Allied powers, to cast themselves as victims of a war they began.
That has made Hiroshima, where an estimated 140,000 civilians perished, a fraught symbol for all sides.
"A part of the problem is that Japan sees itself as a victim -- a victim of U.S. behavior, whether it was Hiroshima or Nagasaki or the fire bombings of Tokyo," said Lily Gardner Feldman, author of "Germany's Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: From Enmity to Amity." "My own view is that until that whole part of the puzzle has been addressed, you can't really address fully the relationships between Japan and South Korea and China."
For Obama, the challenge of his visit to Hiroshima is to make clear that while all sides suffered, all sides also bear responsibility for the horrors of war. Aides said he plans to lay a wreath at the cenotaph in the center of the park and offer brief reflections to dignitaries and reporters, as well as some survivors of the bombing.
Over the past few years, Obama has personally intervened to help mend the frosty relationship between Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye that centered on a dispute over the Japanese military's use of Korean women as sex slaves during the war, euphemistically referred to as "comfort women."
The Obama administration believed the standoff had complicated and distracted from its efforts to work more closely with both U.S. allies to confront a rising China and deal with a nuclear-armed North Korea. Obama presided over a trilateral meeting at The Hague in 2014, and he played host last year to a series of separate visits to the White House from Abe, Park and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Last year, Tokyo and Seoul struck a historic agreement under which the Japanese government agreed to spend $8.3 million to help provide financial aid to the surviving women. Yet in a sign of how politically challenging the deal was for the conservative Abe, the prime minister's statement of apology in announcing the deal was read by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Gi-Wook Shin, director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, said the United States has been successful in turning Japan into a reliable geopolitical ally but has undermined that by failing to push the Japanese firmly enough to mend historical grievances.
"When China became communist, the United States really needed Japan as an ally defending countries from communism," Shin said. "The U.S. should feel a certain responsibility to achieve reconciliation in Northeast Asia."
Obama's visit to Hiroshima could be a step in that direction, he added, but "after this visit, it's really up to Japan. Japan has to take up and play a more active role. If they just say, thank you for visiting us and that's it, it will not really mean much."
In past years, there has been public speculation from foreign policy analysts, and some behind-the-scenes talk among U.S. and Japanese diplomats, that a presidential visit to Hiroshima would be packaged with a reciprocal prime ministerial visit to Pearl Harbor. Under that scenario, the Japanese side would atone for the surprise attack on the U.S. naval base there in 1941 that brought the United States into the Pacific fight.
In recent weeks, however, the Abe administration made clear to U.S. officials that it would not entertain the idea of tying two trips together. The White House agreed, intent on avoiding the impression that the two were equivalent acts.
"We draw no linkages to our decision to go to Hiroshima," said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Obama. The president "is making this decision because he believes that it's important to acknowledge history; it's important to look squarely at history; it's important to have a dialogue about history. ... We have encouraged all leaders in Asia to try to look at these difficult historical issues in a manner that promotes dialogue and understanding and ultimately reconciliation."
Yet privately, the White House has made clear that it would welcome Abe to Pearl Harbor, where plans are underway to mark the 75th anniversary of the attack on Dec. 7. One senior U.S. official said he would be surprised if Abe did not come, though the prime minister said at a news conference this week that he had no plans to do so at this time.
Abe reminded reporters that he gave a speech to the U.S. Congress during a state visit to Washington last spring that reflected on the war and the sacrifices of Americans. The prime minister also accompanied Obama on a tour of the World War II Memorial, where Abe laid a wreath and prayed for the souls of the dead.
On Friday, it will be Obama's turn for reflection at the cenotaph in Peace Park, where he and Abe will be surrounded by reminders of a terrible past that's gone but not forgotten.
© 2016 The Washington Post
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