TOKYO — President Barack Obama this week became the second president to bomb in Hiroshima, after becoming the first sitting president to visit the site of the world's first atomic attack and giving a speech that was widely criticized in the press and on social media.
"I would like to apologize on behalf of all Americans for the bombing of my Hiroshima speech," Obama said in a statement. "I know it left some people feeling burned, even ill. But I am sure the fallout will be easy to contain here in Japan."
Proponents of a nuclear-free world were hopeful Obama would use the speech to lay out a detailed action plan to quash nuclear proliferation. However, the need to overhaul American nuclear weapons to the tune of $1 trillion over the next three decades, along with the president taking the stage while The Gap Band's "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" played cast a large cloud over the speech.
