Obama wants to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki

I think all the above statements are good and if Obama did that, that would be a very good gesture.

But I would like to see the President Obama tackle a real serious out of control issue and that is the issue of Child Abduction. For far too long has Japan been getting away with abducting children that were awarded custody in many cases to fathers of interracial marriages.
Japan has for a very long time tried not to sign the Hague “Child Abduction International Law Treaty” one of the G7 and supposedly a 1st world nation. The Child custody laws in Japan are outdated and vague to say the least.

It would be great if Obama can have straight bilateral talks and can hopefully try to steer Japan in the right direction that would help US-Japan relations as well as other countries that have been gravely affected by this. Too often, the Japanese side takes the mothers testimony at face value without proper proof, documentations, written statements.

This would be a great start and one that can one day cause less pain for the parties involved and most importantly, the children. Because the children have rights and it is only fair that their rights feelings be taken into consideration.

As ij487i alludes to, there are some things that are on Obama’s mind, that he is a man of peace and whatnot.

But again a sitting U.S. president visiting Hiroshima/Nagasaki is a big no no. Whatever Obama’s personal feelings are, visiting the atomic bomb sites is too much of a political hot potatoe.

Anytime Hiroshima is mentioned, people automatically complain that it’s an example of how Japanese are all denying their past, making themselves out to be the victims of WW2, etc. etc. Well maybe the citizens of Hiroshima are against nuclear war because they experienced it, period, not because they are all making themselves out to be ‘victims’ of WW2 or any other extraneous issues. And by default, if Obama did go as sitting President, then many would criticize him for being a ‘Japan apologist.’

The popular view is that these atomic bombs saved hundreds of thousands of American lives, not to mention Japanese lives, from a bloody invasion of the mainland, and shortened the war. What active U.S. president would want to risk the backlash from visiting Hiroshima/Nagasaki no matter what the intent? Obama is already struggling with those that believe he was never born in the U.S., he’s associated with ‘terrorists,’ etc. etc. He can ill afford the potential backlash.

According to an article on Mainichi:
“Meanwhile, a high-ranking U.S. government official on Monday indicated that there would be a chance of the president visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki if he were invited to ceremonies in the cities to make him an honorary citizen, saying he hoped that the cities would bestow such a title on Obama.”

What an egotistical crap-hole.