US Secretary of State makes historic visit to Hiroshima A-bomb park

HIROSHIMA - US Secretary of State John Kerry made a historic visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park here on Monday, along with other G7 foreign ministers.

The G7 foreign ministers visited the park's Peace Memorial Museum first, and then walked to the Cenotaph for the Atomic Bomb Victims in the center of the park and placed flowers at the cenotaph.

At Kerry's proposal, the foreign ministers also made an unscheduled visit to Atomic Bomb Dome in the park which was a relic from the atomic bombing 71 years ago.

Kerry is the first US Secretary of State visiting the A-bombed city. The Japanese government is also hoping Kerry's visit would spur a visit by the US President Barack Obama to Hiroshima in May.

However, there has not yet been any discussion about the Obama visit to Hiroshima between Kerry and his Japanese counterpart, said Kawamura, press secretary of the Japanese Foreign Ministry at a press briefing after the G7 ministers' visit to the memorial.

"I'm not at any position to make any promise regarding the issue of President Obama's visit," said Fumio Kishida, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, at the closing press conference of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting.

To accelerate Japan's surrender in the World War II, the US forces dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively on Aug 6 and 9, 1945. Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces on Aug 15, 1945, bringing an end to the war.