US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday visited a peace park marking the 1945 US atomic bombing in the western Japan city of Hiroshima, the first US state secretary to do so. 
Earlier, during a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart, (NBC NEWS) quoted Kerry as saying "While we will revisit the past and honor those who perished, this trip is not about the past. It's about the present and the future." Kerry, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault are in Hiroshima to attend the two-day G-7 ministerial meeting from Sunday. It is also the first time that the foreign ministers of the two European countries have visited the park. 
Seventy-one years ago, the United States dropped two atomic bombs toward the end of World War II, first on Hiroshima, which is estimated to have killed 140,000 people, and three days later in Nagasaki. 
For decades, the United States has avoided sending an envoy to Hiroshima because of the sensitive and controversial debate over the justification of the bombings. 
It was not until 2010 that the then-ambassador to Japan, John Roos, attended the annual memorial service, and the practice has since been upheld by the current ambassador, Caroline Kennedy. 
"I hope it will underscore to the world the importance of peace and the importance of strong allies working together to make the world safer, and ultimately we hope to be able to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction," Kerry said. 
The event coincided with a Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in the city of Hiroshima, where leaders discussed issues ranging from the Middle East crisis, North Korea's missiles and nuclear tests and China's military encroachment in the South China Sea.

Source: QNA