Obama's Hiroshima visit at risk of being hijacked

The White House has officially announced that US President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima on May 27, the first-ever such visit to the city by a sitting US president. Its implication goes far beyond the impact it will have on Japan and the United States.

The White House stated explicitly that Obama will not apologize for his country's atomic bombing of the city during World War II in 1945, and there is no reason for him to do so.

Yet, it is quite likely the Japanese media and right-wingers will interpret a visit by the US president itself as an apologetic gesture, as they did when US Secretary of State John Kerry visited the city's Memorial Park in April.