May 14, 2016 4 min read

On Aug. 6, 1945, Harry S. Truman had been president of the United States a little less than four months, and the onetime haberdasher and machine politician from Missouri, thought by some to be an undistinguished lilliputian occupying the office of the towering Franklin Roosevelt, had an announcement to make.

He informed the American public that a bomb with “more power than 20,000 tons of TNT” had been unleashed on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.

“It is an atomic bomb,” Truman explained. “It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.”

The attack on Hiroshima was followed three days later by another atomic bomb being dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. All told, over 200,000 people were killed, and it brought the curtain down on World War II, sparking celebrations among Americans weary of the conflict and ecstatic that their loved ones would not be shipped off for a protracted invasion of Japan.

The joy was quickly tempered by sobriety about the genie that had been let loose by the scientists who developed the atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. The race was now on for America to stockpile more of these weapons, and for other countries to get them. Until the Cold War ended in 1991, Americans, Russians, everyone in the world, had to live with the reality that life as we know it could be extinguished in the bat of an eyelash. Though concern about imminent annihilation has eased over the last quarter-century, there are still 15,000 weapons in nuclear arsenals around the world – a worrying number, particularly if one or two should fall into the hands of terrorists, or if one of the nations overflowing with them ends up with a leader lacking in temperament or wisdom.

In the seven decades since the Hiroshima bombing, sitting U.S. presidents have made numerous visits to Japan, but Hiroshima has never been on the itinerary. That changed last week, however, when it was announced that President Obama would be stopping in Hiroshima as part of a previously scheduled trip to Japan for the Group of Seven economic summit.

Secretary of State John Kerry prepared the ground by visiting Hiroshima last month, and the White House was quick to underscore that Obama would not be making any apologies for the United States’ actions 71 years ago, or second-guessing the calls made by Truman. Instead, it “will offer an opportunity to honor the memory of all innocents who were lost during the war,” according to Benjamin J. Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser.

Given the number of nuclear weapons in the world, it’s miraculous that no other cities have been destroyed in the seven decades since the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One way to assure that holds is by stepping up efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear arms across the globe, a goal Obama has pursued throughout his presidency. The results, however, have been mixed. He successfully brokered a deal with Iran to halt its nuclear program, but, at the same time, the crazed regime in North Korea is said to be testing nuclear weapons. The United States is also on the cusp of a $1 trillion upgrade of its nuclear stockpile, which critics have argued blunts the effectiveness of Obama’s overall message about disarmament.

Nevertheless, when Obama stops at Hiroshima he should acknowledge the lives that were lost there, celebrate the alliance that has grown between the United States and Japan in the decades since, and stress that the world becomes more dangerous with each new nuclear weapon that is concocted.

He should also voice the hopes of all humanity that no other city has to erect solemn monuments like those on display in Hiroshima.