In Hiroshima, no expectation of apology from Obama | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Shizuo Sumida blames his father’s premature death, his wife’s debilitating stroke and his own stomach cancer all on the atomic bomb that fell from a U.S. plane here nearly 71 years ago.

Still, the longtime taxi driver is not looking for Barack Obama to apologize Friday when he becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world’s first atomic bombing.

“I don’t think his apology is necessary,” said Sumida, 69, of Hiroshima, who was born after the U.S. dropped the bomb. “Him just coming here has such a significance. It is enough that he is here and sees Hiroshima with his own eyes.”

All over this city in western Japan, people say they are grateful that Obama is coming, and most say they aren’t bothered that it took this long – or that he isn’t going to apologize for what predecessor Harry S. Truman ordered.

But they want him to know what happened here – that their lives and their families’ lives changed following the deaths, the illnesses and damages left in the bomb’s wake. Years later, they are still suffering with diseases, medical bills and painful memories.

“I want him to feel how the people of Hiroshima think, and bring that back to spread those messages to his people in America,” said Haruna Sako, 24, a nurse who grew up in Hiroshima. “I want him to see what was lost in such an instance.”

The atomic bomb killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb killed up to 80,000 people in Nagasaki. The pair of bombings led to the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.

Hiroshima, a small city by Japanese standards, is defined by what happened to it 71 years ago. Residents, especially those who grew up here, want to talk about what happened and don’t seem surprised that Obama, or anyone, would want to visit.

“The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency,” Obama said on his first trip to Japan in his first year in office.

Obama, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, where he will lay a wreath at a concrete, arch-shaped monument that represents a shelter for the souls of the victims.

Several groups have called on Obama to outline steps he would take toward a nuclear-free world, but aides say he is unlikely to offer any specific proposals. Instead, he will deliver brief remarks as he reflects on the memorial.

Here’s what he is likely to see:

An expansive park with a fountain, lush trees and the skeletal ruins of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, the building closest to the center of the bomb; a 52-year flame that will remain lit until all nuclear bombs are destroyed; and thousands of folded paper cranes from around the world as a tribute to Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died in 1955 from radiation despite believing that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured.

Here’s what he won’t see after the park is cleared out for him:

Hundreds of schoolchildren in navy blue and white uniforms singing the peace song “Orizuru” – or “Paper Crane” – that all students in Hiroshima learn in elementary school, visitors ringing the peace bell and crowds of Japanese people – from down the street to across the country – wanting to talk about their opposition to nuclear weapons.

On Thursday, the park was bustling with the usual tourists, nearby residents and schoolchildren as well as scores of police officers, journalists from around the world and organizers setting out chairs to ready for Obama’s arrival. A couple of dozen protesters at one side of the park criticized the visit. “No nukes!” their posters said in English. “No Abe! No Obama.”

Miki Saiki, 35, biking through the park with her 2-year-old daughter, said she’d initially wanted Obama to apologize on his visit. But, she said, after hearing from survivors she changed her mind

“They are looking forward,” said Saiki, who moved to Hiroshima from Okinawa after getting married. “They have a strong message that they want him to recognize what happened in the past, then apply what he sees for leading a path to world peace.”

The visit is a bookend of sorts for Obama, who in a 2009 speech in Prague promised to take “concrete steps toward a world without nuclear weapons.”

Yasushi Funatsu, 60, a college professor from Saga, knows that some Obama critics complain that he has not been able to reduce the number of nuclear weapons despite his effort.

“But he is the president who has clearly said that as a country that has used nuclear weapon, it has moral responsibility,” he said. “I would like him to be here, feel it and spread the message.”

From the moment the White House announced the trip, Obama aides have been clear that he will not apologize nor will he second-guess a previous president’s decision.

Junzo Yanagawa, 62, a retiree from Saitama, said he knew that some people in their 70s or 80s, who were directly involved in the war or its aftermath, were not interested in Obama’s visit. But he doesn’t feel that.

“Things happened before I was born,” he said, “but it’s something that should never been forgotten.”