Read The Full Text of President Obama’s Speech In Hiroshima

8 minute read

When President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima on Friday alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he became the first sitting president to do so more than 70 years after a nuclear bomb was dropped on the city.

Here is the full text of his speech at the site, as recorded by the New York Times:

Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.

Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in a not-so-distant past. We come to mourn the dead, including over 100,000 Japanese men, women and children, thousands of Koreans, a dozen Americans held prisoner.

Their souls speak to us. They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become.

It is not the fact of war that sets Hiroshima apart. Artifacts tell us that violent conflict appeared with the very first man. Our early ancestors having learned to make blades from flint and spears from wood used these tools not just for hunting but against their own kind. On every continent, the history of civilization is filled with war, whether driven by scarcity of grain or hunger for gold, compelled by nationalist fervor or religious zeal. Empires have risen and fallen. Peoples have been subjugated and liberated. And at each juncture, innocents have suffered, a countless toll, their names forgotten by time.

The world war that reached its brutal end in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was fought among the wealthiest and most powerful of nations. Their civilizations had given the world great cities and magnificent art. Their thinkers had advanced ideas of justice and harmony and truth. And yet the war grew out of the same base instinct for domination or conquest that had caused conflicts among the simplest tribes, an old pattern amplified by new capabilities and without new constraints.

In the span of a few years, some 60 million people would die. Men, women, children, no different than us. Shot, beaten, marched, bombed, jailed, starved, gassed to death. There are many sites around the world that chronicle this war, memorials that tell stories of courage and heroism, graves and empty camps that echo of unspeakable depravity.

Yet in the image of a mushroom cloud that rose into these skies, we are most starkly reminded of humanity’s core contradiction. How the very spark that marks us as a species, our thoughts, our imagination, our language, our toolmaking, our ability to set ourselves apart from nature and bend it to our will — those very things also give us the capacity for unmatched destruction.

How often does material advancement or social innovation blind us to this truth? How easily we learn to justify violence in the name of some higher cause.

Every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness, and yet no religion has been spared from believers who have claimed their faith as a license to kill.

Nations arise telling a story that binds people together in sacrifice and cooperation, allowing for remarkable feats. But those same stories have so often been used to oppress and dehumanize those who are different.

Science allows us to communicate across the seas and fly above the clouds, to cure disease and understand the cosmos, but those same discoveries can be turned into ever more efficient killing machines.

The wars of the modern age teach us this truth. Hiroshima teaches this truth. Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us. The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well.

That is why we come to this place. We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry. We remember all the innocents killed across the arc of that terrible war and the wars that came before and the wars that would follow.

Mere words cannot give voice to such suffering. But we have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again.

Some day, the voices of the hibakusha will no longer be with us to bear witness. But the memory of the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, must never fade. That memory allows us to fight complacency. It fuels our moral imagination. It allows us to change.

And since that fateful day, we have made choices that give us hope. The United States and Japan have forged not only an alliance but a friendship that has won far more for our people than we could ever claim through war. The nations of Europe built a union that replaced battlefields with bonds of commerce and democracy. Oppressed people and nations won liberation. An international community established institutions and treaties that work to avoid war and aspire to restrict and roll back and ultimately eliminate the existence of nuclear weapons.

Still, every act of aggression between nations, every act of terror and corruption and cruelty and oppression that we see around the world shows our work is never done. We may not be able to eliminate man’s capacity to do evil, so nations and the alliances that we form must possess the means to defend ourselves. But among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them.

We may not realize this goal in my lifetime, but persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe. We can chart a course that leads to the destruction of these stockpiles. We can stop the spread to new nations and secure deadly materials from fanatics.

And yet that is not enough. For we see around the world today how even the crudest rifles and barrel bombs can serve up violence on a terrible scale. We must change our mind-set about war itself. To prevent conflict through diplomacy and strive to end conflicts after they’ve begun. To see our growing interdependence as a cause for peaceful cooperation and not violent competition. To define our nations not by our capacity to destroy but by what we build. And perhaps, above all, we must reimagine our connection to one another as members of one human race.

For this, too, is what makes our species unique. We’re not bound by genetic code to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can learn. We can choose. We can tell our children a different story, one that describes a common humanity, one that makes war less likely and cruelty less easily accepted.

We see these stories in the hibakusha. The woman who forgave a pilot who flew the plane that dropped the atomic bomb because she recognized that what she really hated was war itself. The man who sought out families of Americans killed here because he believed their loss was equal to his own.

My own nation’s story began with simple words: All men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Realizing that ideal has never been easy, even within our own borders, even among our own citizens. But staying true to that story is worth the effort. It is an ideal to be strived for, an ideal that extends across continents and across oceans. The irreducible worth of every person, the insistence that every life is precious, the radical and necessary notion that we are part of a single human family — that is the story that we all must tell.

That is why we come to Hiroshima. So that we might think of people we love. The first smile from our children in the morning. The gentle touch from a spouse over the kitchen table. The comforting embrace of a parent. We can think of those things and know that those same precious moments took place here, 71 years ago.

Those who died, they are like us. Ordinary people understand this, I think. They do not want more war. They would rather that the wonders of science be focused on improving life and not eliminating it. When the choices made by nations, when the choices made by leaders, reflect this simple wisdom, then the lesson of Hiroshima is done.

The world was forever changed here, but today the children of this city will go through their day in peace. What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.

See President Obama Tour Asia in Historic Trip

Barack Obama
U.S. President Barack Obama lays wreaths at the cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, Friday, May 27, 2016. Shuji Kajiyama—AP
U.S. President Obama Visits Hiroshima
U.S. President Barack Obama embraces atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori during his visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 27, 2016 in Hiroshima, Japan. Atsushi Tomura—Getty Images
Japan Obama Hiroshima
U.S. President Barack Obama stands after laying a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western, Japan, Friday, May 27, 2016. Obama on Friday became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world's first atomic bomb attack.Shuji Kajiyama—AP
US President Obama visits Hiroshima
People gather to watch the arrival of President Barack Obama around Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, on May 27, 2016.Kiyoshi Ota—EPA
US President Obama visits Hiroshima
U.S. Presdent Barack Obama puts his hand on the back of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, viewing the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, western Japan, May 27, 2016. Kimimasa Mayama— Press Pool/EPA
G7 Japan 2016 Ise-Shima - Day 1
U.S. President Barack Obama walks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the Ujibashi bridge as they visit at the Ise-Jingu Shrine on May 26, 2016 in Ise, Japan. Chung Sung-Jun—Getty Images
APTOPIX Japan Hiroshima Obama
With the Atomic Bomb Dome as a backdrop, passers-by move past riot police near Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, southwestern Japan, Thursday, May 26, 2016. Shuji Kajiyama—AP
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European Council President Donald Tusk, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pose for photographs at the family photo session during the Group of Seven summit on May 26, 2016 in Shima, Mie, Japan. The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
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Women and children line the streets to catch a glimpse of President Barack Obama on his way to the airport at the end of two-day visit to Ho Chi Minh City on May 25, 2016.Christophe Archambaul—AFP/Getty Images
Barack Obama, Tu Ngo
U.S. President Barack Obama embraces Tu Ngo, a member of the YSEALI Network, after she introduces him during the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) town hall at the GEM Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 25, 2016. Carolyn Kaster—AP
Barack Obama, Thich Minh Thong
U.S. President Barack Obama bows as he visits the Jade Emperor Pagoda with Thich Minh Thong, abbot of the Jade Emperor Pagoda, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tuesday, May 24, 2016. Carolyn Kaster—AP
US President Obama visits Vietnam
Vietnamese people wait for President Barack Obama outside the Jade Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 24, 2016. Diego Azubel—EPA
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U.S. President Barack Obama greets people as he walks to his motorcade vehicle after meeting American Chef Anthony Bourdain in a shopping area in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, May 24, 2016. Carolyn Kaster—AP
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A woman shields her baby from the rain as President Barack Obama visits American Chef Anthony Bourdain nearby in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, May 24, 2016. Carolyn Kaster—AP
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People looking out along a narrow street in a shopping district are seen from a passing media press van President Barack Obama's motorcade en route to visit American Chef Anthony Bourdain in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.Carolyn Kaster—AP
US President Obama visits Vietnam
President Barack Obama disembarks Air Force One after landing at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 24, 2016. Le Quang Nhat—EPA
U.S. President Barack Obama and Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang review an honor guard at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 23, 2016.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang review an honor guard at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 23, 2016. Minh Hoang—EPA
President Barack Obama and President Tran Dai Quang take part in a joint press conference in Hanoi on May 23.
President Barack Obama and President Tran Dai Quang take part in a joint press conference in Hanoi on May 23.Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images
President Barack Obama walks with Vietnam's National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan during his visit to the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on May 23.
President Barack Obama walks with Vietnam's National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan during his visit to the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on May 23.Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images
President Barack Obama and Vietnam's Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speak in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 23.
President Barack Obama and Vietnam's Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speak in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 23.Kham—Press Pool/EPA
President Barack Obama waves to local people as he enters a restaurant which serves bun cha, traditional Vietnamese dish of noodle and grilled pork, in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 23.
President Barack Obama waves to local people as he enters a restaurant which serves bun cha, traditional Vietnamese dish of noodle and grilled pork, in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 23.Hoang Manh Thang—EPA
APTOPIX Vietnam Obama Politics
A young girl looks out under a poster of U.S President Barack Obama with a footnote reading "Welcome to our city", hung on the door of a shop in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday, May 22, 2016. Hau Dinh—AP
Residents gather at the street to wait for the motorcade transporting U.S. President Barack Obama in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 23.
Residents gather at the street to wait for the motorcade transporting U.S. President Barack Obama in Hanoi, Vietnam on May 23.EPA

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