Photo/Illutration A networking lunch by Group of Seven leaders in Hiroshima on May 19 (Pool)

HIROSHIMA--Symbolism was to be found everywhere as the three-day Group of Seven summit kicked off May 19 in this western Japan city that was devastated by atomic bombing 78 years ago.

The leaders started their morning by visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It was the first time for them to do so together. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko, first greeted the leaders in the park.

The visit was not open to the media or the public, so it was not immediately known what exhibits the leaders saw.

Kishida served as tour guide.

The last, and first, visit to Hiroshima by an incumbent U.S. president, Barack Obama, was in May 2016. He also visited the museum.

Getting world leaders to tour the facility was something Kishida had long sought in his quest to achieve a “world without nuclear weapons.”

The prime minister clearly hoped that the morning’s events would open the eyes of his guests to the reality of nuclear destruction and thereby raise momentum for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.

Afterward, the leaders wrote down their impressions in the museum’s visitors’ book. They then went on to lay flowers at the park’s cenotaph for atomic bomb victims and posed for a group photo in front of the monument.

In another symbolic gesture, the leaders planted a sapling grafted with a branch of a Somei-Yoshino cherry tree in the park.

The tree itself is dubbed the “atomic-bombed Sakura” because it was exposed to the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic blast but survived.

The museum opened in 1955, 10 years after the bombing. It owns around 22,000 items, including photographs of the destruction and items left by victims.

The museum consists of a main building and an east wing. Most of the exhibits are in the main building.

Obama visited the east building for around 10 minutes. There, he saw hand-made displays of origami cranes for peace made by Sadako Sasaki, who was 2 years when the bomb was dropped. She died at the age of 12.

Obama also saw works by the Japanese painter and hibakusha survivor Ikuo Hirayama. The museum now exhibits origami cranes that Obama made and donated to the facility.

The May 19 visit by the G-7 leaders was prompted by Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine and North Korea’s relentless efforts to develop nuke weapons and ballistic missiles. China has also been flexing its nuclear muscle.

Among discussion topics at the summit will be the concept of “extended deterrence,” a commitment on the part of the nuclear powers to deter aggression against themselves and their allies, and how this notion squares with the global movement for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.

But, as past summits have shown, it is almost impossible to reach any agreement between the nuclear “haves,” such as the United States, Britain and France, and “have-nots” on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation other than occasional pledges to reduce nuclear arsenals.

(This article was written by Tamiyuki Kihara and Anri Takahashi.) 

Related News