Barack Obama is to become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, site of the world's first atomic bombing.
International relations experts notes the event as a gesture of Washington and Tokyo to demonstrate their alliance and breathe life into stalled efforts to abolish nuclear arms.
Prominent International Media report that even before it occurs, the visit has stirred debate, with critics accusing both sides of having selective memories, and pointing to paradoxes in policies relying on nuclear deterrence while calling for an end to atomic arms.
The two governments hope Obama's tour of Hiroshima, where an atomic bomb dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, killed thousands instantly and some 140,000 by the year's end, will highlight a new level of reconciliation and tighter ties between the former enemies.