--- title: President Obama Will Make Historic Visit to Hiroshima description: President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima, the Japanese city that was destroyed in 1945 by an atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on during World War II. canonical: https://time.com/4324308/barack-obama-hiroshima-visit-japan/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-10T12:29:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T12:48:47.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Will Make Historic Visit to Hiroshima og:description: He will be the first sitting president to visit the city since the 1945 bombing og:url: https://time.com/4324308/barack-obama-hiroshima-visit-japan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5ba063c3be5ec39/69889299ab6d773dde6a9a25/obama8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Obama and Shinzo Abe give a joint press conference in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Will Make Historic Visit to Hiroshima twitter:description: He will be the first sitting president to visit the city since the 1945 bombing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5ba063c3be5ec39/69889299ab6d773dde6a9a25/obama8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Will Make Historic Visit to Hiroshima During Japan Trip  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:48 PM UTCPublished: May 10, 2016 12:29 PM UTC  President Obama and Shinzo Abe in the White House, on April 28, 2015. President Obama and Shinzo Abe in the White House, on April 28, 2015.Kevin Lamarque—Reuters  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:48 PM UTCPublished: May 10, 2016 12:29 PM UTC President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima, the Japanese city that was devastated in 1945 by an atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. during World War II. “The President will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with \[Japanese\] Prime Minister \[Shinzo\] Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” the [White House said in a statement](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/10/statement-press-secretary-presidents-travel-vietnam-and-japan) on Tuesday. Obama, who is traveling to Vietnam and Japan from May 21 to 28, will be the first serving president to visit the city. During his trip to Japan, Obama will participate in his final Group of 7 summit of industrialized nations. Obama has previously spoken about wanting to visit Hiroshima, and Secretary of State John Kerry [visited the city earlier this year](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/world/asia/john-kerry-hiroshima-wwii-japan.html), fueling speculation that Obama would visit. “Everyone should visit Hiroshima, and everyone means everyone,” Kerry said at a news conference last month, when asked about a potential visit by the president. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4324308/barack-obama-hiroshima-visit-japan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4324308/barack-obama-hiroshima-visit-japan/"},"headline":"President Obama Will Make Historic Visit to Hiroshima During Japan Trip","datePublished":"2016-05-10T12:29:06.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T12:48:47.000Z","description":"He will be the first sitting president to visit the city since the 1945 bombing","url":"https://time.com/4324308/barack-obama-hiroshima-visit-japan/","keywords":["Barack Obama","White House","Japan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5ba063c3be5ec39/69889299ab6d773dde6a9a25/obama8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5ba063c3be5ec39/69889299ab6d773dde6a9a25/obama8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama and Shinzo Abe give a joint press conference in Washington","caption":"Obama and Shinzo Abe give a joint press conference in Washington","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4324308/barack-obama-hiroshima-visit-japan/","name":"President Obama Will Make Historic Visit to Hiroshima During Japan Trip"}}]}] ```