Obama: An embrace for Hiroshima survivor but no apology[Photos]

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• An embrace for Hiroshima survivor... but no apology: Obama calls for a world without nuclear arms as he becomes the first serving US president to visit site of atomic bomb attack that killed 140,000

• A US B-29 bomber dropped 'Little Boy' on Hiroshima at 8.15am on August 6, 1945 devastating the coastal city
• President Obama did not apologize for the attack while emphasizing a 'shared responsibility' by countries with nuclear stockpiles to 'curb such suffering' from ever happening again
• He said the attack in August 1945 'demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself'
• Washington and Tokyo want today's historic gesture to restart the effort on international nuclear disarmament

After making his speech at the memorial park, President Obama embraced an elderly survivor of the attack on August 6, 1945

President Obama, left, shook hands with Sunao Tsuboi, who survived the attack who expressed gratitude for the historic visit

Today Obama became the first sitting US President to visit Hiroshima, site of the world's first nuclear attack on August 6, 1945

Standing beside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, Obama said the bomb demonstrated 'mankind had the power to destroy itself'

Prime Minister Abe said President Obama's visit to Hiroshima today marks a new chapter of reconciliation between Japan and the US

President Obama, right, paused briefly and bowed his head as he laid the wreath at the site of the world's first nuclear attack

• 71 years after Harry Truman authorized the attack, President Obama was introduced to some of the survivors who witnessed the terror

Tsuboi said he never thought the US President would visit Hiroshima during his lifetime and warmly welcomed Obama to the city

Shigeaki Mori, a survivor, second right, who created a memorial for American prisoners of war who died at Hiroshima greeted the president

Former US President Jimmy Carter considered visiting Hiroshima while in office but found it politically impossible

During his historic speech in Hiroshima today, President Obama addressed the issue of the use of 'barrel bombs' in the Syrian conflict

Obama and Abe speak at the cenotaph for the memorial of victims of the world's first nuclear attack on August 6, 1945

President Obama did not apologize for Harry Truman's decision to authorize the attack which claimed some 140,000 lives

President Obama, center, stepped from Marine Force One has he arrived earlier today in Hiroshima, site of the attack in August 1945

Protesters have gathered near the site where President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will lay their wreaths later today

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A cenotaph, pictured, marks the spot where the atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945 killing 140,000 people in Hiroshima

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President Obama will lay a wreath at the site where the Little Boy bomb was dropped by a US B-29 on August 6, 1945 to honor the dead

 

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HOW AUGUST 6, 1945 CHANGED THE WORLD AFTER ENOLA GAY DROPPED 'LITTLE BOY' ON HIROSHIMA
With a blinding flash of light and an ear-splitting roar, the age of nuclear conflict arrived with terrifying and awe-inspiring force on August 6, 1945, changing the course of history, and killing 140,000 people.

The morning was a run-of-the-mill one for most Hiroshima residents. Housewives made breakfast for their families, children played in the sticky summer heat, and men hurried to get ready for work.

Few could have known the dangers above them as a US B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay pierced the sky, loaded with deadly cargo in its belly, the single most fearsome weapon the world had ever seen.

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On August 6, 1945 a US B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, dropped Little Boy, a uranium bomb on Hiroshima killing an estimated 140,000 people

At 8:15 am, the pilot released Little Boy, a uranium bomb with a destructive force equivalent to 16 kilotons of TNT.

After the initial searing fireball, gusts of around one mile a second roared outwards, carrying with them shattered debris, and packing enough force to rip limbs from bodies.

The air pressure suddenly dropped, crushing those on the ground, and an ominous mushroom cloud rose, towering ten miles above the city.

The smell of burning flesh filled the air as scores of badly injured survivors tried to escape the inferno by diving into the rivers that criss-crossed Hiroshima.

Countless hundreds never emerged, pushed under the surface by the mass of desperate humanity; their charred bodies left bobbing in the brackish water.


Aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima


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Many died of their terrible injuries over the following hours and days; lying where they fell, desperate for help that would never come, or even just for a sip of water.

For those who survived, there was the terrifying unknown of radiation sickness still to come.

Gums bled, teeth fell out, hair came off in clumps; there were cancers, premature births, malformed babies and sudden deaths.

Seven decades later, some stone buildings that survived the supersonic blast still bear the shadows of anything -- or anyone -- that was incinerated in front of them.

The mangled skeleton of a domed exhibition hall -- the only structure left standing near the epicentre -- stands as a grim reminder of the power of the world's first atomic bombing, a sight that Barack Obama will see Friday when he becomes the first sitting US president to visit the city.

The Hiroshima attack was followed three days later by the Nagasaki bombing. In the wake of the overpowering twin bombs, Japan surrendered less than a week later, ending the Second World War.

This file photo taken in 1945 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima in the days after the first atomic bomb was dropped by the US