Readers React: Why President Obama, who controls the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, should visit Hiroshima

To the editor: I had the incredible opportunity to visit Hiroshima in 2007. Walking through the serenity of Peace Park did not distract from the realization of what had happened there more than six decades earlier. (“See Hiroshima for yourself, congressman of Japanese descent tells President Obama,” April 22)

The museum is amazing — it not only teaches about the devastation wrought by “Little Boy,” but also the impact on the everyday human existences that were forever changed or snuffed out entirely by the bombing. Children’s toys, a worker’s wristwatch and additional otherwise mundane items bring home the reality of what war does to us all.

One thing in particular left a strong impression on me. Inside Peace Dome itself, I heard a group of tourists whispering and pointing at a cat sleeping on a concrete table. The dichotomy of that image — a resting cat underneath a burnt out dome — was astounding.

I echo Rep. Mark Takano’s call for President Obama to visit Hiroshima. The notion that we still have the ability to destroy civilization cannot be brushed aside.

John Aston, South Gate

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To the editor: I too hope Obama will visit Hiroshima. But we must remember that among the victims of the bomb in Hiroshima were 12 American prisoners of war. These were the airmen who had been captured by the Japanese when their planes were shot down while attacking the Kure naval base near Hiroshima in July 1945.

Ten of them were detained in the military police headquarters 1,300 feet from Ground Zero. When the bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, they were killed instantly. Two others, who were kept in prison four miles north of Ground Zero, survived the initial blast but died days later.

If Obama visits Hiroshima, I hope he will also use this occasion to honor and mourn these brave men who had fought for the country, were killed by an atomic bomb dropped by their own government and have been forgotten.

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Santa Barbara

The writer, a professor emeritus of history at UC Santa Barbara, is the author of the book “Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan.”

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