It’s taken more than 60 years, but finally the U.S. government is sending a representative to the Hiroshima memorial service on August 6 in Japan. U.S. Ambassador John Roos will attend the event, along with diplomats from the United Kingdom and France, also a first.
Although exact figures are not known, about 100,000 people died as a result of the atomic blast that the U.S. unleashed on the Japanese city. Three days after Hiroshima, the
U.S. Air Force dropped an A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 80,000. American officials have not said whether a representative will attend the Nagasaki ceremony this year.
-Noel Brinkerhoff