Kishida, U.S. Ambassador Emanuel visit Hiroshima together

Jiji Press

18:27 JST, March 26, 2022

HIROSHIMA (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel together visited Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park on Saturday, offering flowers at the cenotaph for the victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing.

Kishida, whose constituency is in Hiroshima, apparently hoped to highlight his nuclear disarmament initiative by guiding the ambassador of the major nuclear power in the city.

The new U.S. ambassador arrived in Japan in January. In 2009-2010, he served as chief of staff to then U.S. President Barack Obama, who was the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima in 2016.

The Hiroshima visit by Kishida and Emanuel was initially planned for late February but postponed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier on Saturday, the prime minister attended a graduation ceremony at the Japan Coast Guard Academy in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture.

He also visited his family’s grave in the city of Higashi-Hiroshima for the first time since he took office last October.