U.S. envoy Roos to attend A-bomb ceremony in Hiroshima: State Dept.+

WASHINGTON, July 29 Kyodo -
The State Department said Wednesday that U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos
will attend an annual ceremony in Hiroshima on Aug. 6 to commemorate the 1945
atomic bombing of the city, becoming the first U.S. government representative
to be sent to the event.
The Japanese government and people in Hiroshima on Thursday hailed the
decision, expressing their hope that the United States will correctly
understand Japan's desire that there should be no more victims of nuclear
attacks.
''Ambassador John Roos will represent the United States at the August 6th
Hiroshima Peace Memorial to express respect for all of the victims of World War
II,'' State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told a news conference.
Asked if the decision to send a U.S. representative to the event has any
special significance, Crowley said, ''We thought it was the right thing to
do.''
The spokesman declined to say whether Roos will also attend the A-bomb memorial
service in Nagasaki on Aug. 9.
The U.S. atomic bombings of the cities led to Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.
The announcement by Washington came as U.S. President Barack Obama is pushing
hard for a world free of nuclear weapons.
In Tokyo on Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he welcomed the
U.S. decision to send Roos to the memorial ceremony.
''I believe this will provide a very good opportunity (for the United States)
to understand Japanese people's strong desire that our experience of atomic
bombings should never be repeated,'' Kan told reporters.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba also welcomed the move, saying, ''We hope that
the ambassador's attendance will further move the global consensus toward
nuclear disarmament and lead the nuclear states to make the political decision
to abolish'' nuclear weapons.
The city of Hiroshima has been asking nuclear-weapon states to send
representatives to the annual ceremony since 1988.
Roos, who has close ties to Obama, is said to be able to directly advise him.
Expectations are rising in Japan that Obama may visit Hiroshima when he travels
to the country in November to attend a summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum to be held in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.
Obama sounded positive about visiting the city when he met with Hiroshima Mayor
Tadatoshi Akiba at the White House in January and was quoted by Akiba as
telling him, ''I would like to come.''
Roos visited Hiroshima last October and toured the Peace Memorial Park and the
A-Bomb Dome, a symbol of the devastation caused by the nuclear explosion.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will become the first U.N. chief to attend
the memorial service in Hiroshima and will deliver a speech there.
==Kyodo
2010-07-29 22:52:35


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