White House: History will sort out if U.S. should apologize to Japan

“Obviously this is a question that historians have considered,” spokesman Josh Earnest said. “And it’s an entirely legitimate line of inquiry for historians.”

President Obama’s planned stop in Hiroshima is intended as a “forward-looking signal about his ambition for realizing the goal of a planet without nuclear weapons,” Earnest told reporters Tuesday, another sign that the United States will not apologize for dropping two atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII.

Earnest also dismissed the idea that Obama’s mere presence in Hiroshima signifies an apology. “If people do interpret it that way, they will be interpreting it wrongly,” Earnest said.

Obama’s May 27 visit to the site of the world’s first nuclear bombing will “highlight the remarkable transformation in the relationship between Japan and the United States,” Earnest said. “If you had imagined that one of our closest partners and allies in Asia was Japan just 70 years ago, it would have been very difficult to imagine given the hostilities between our two countries,” Earnest said. “Yet, that is exactly what has occurred.”

Critics point out that Obama could convey that message during other stops on his trip to Japan and Vietnam for the G-7, but Earnest dismissed that sentiment.

“They’re a lot of people with a lot of opinions about this trip,” Earnest said.

“The president certainly understands that the United States bears a special responsibility,” Earnest countered.

“The United States continues to be the only country that has used nuclear weapons,” he added, and that means the U.S. bears a “special responsibility” to push for the end of nuclear weapons. He said Obama believes the U.S. must take the lead in pushing for global elimination of nuclear weapons.

Obama’s visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park follows a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy last month.