Perdana, Pemimpin Negara G7 Direncanakan Mengunjungi Museum Bom Atom Hiroshima

Visitors at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Japan. (Wikimedia Commons/At by At)

JAKARTA - Japan began arranging the visit of leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) to the atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima or the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in May 2023, government sources said Wednesday.

If realized, this would be the first time G-7 leaders have visited the museum together, the source said, according to Kyodo News December 21.

Japan is scheduled to host the G-7 summit for three days until May 21 next year in the western city of Hiroshima, which was destroyed by an atomic bomb in the United States in August 1945.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents the constituency in Hiroshima, has put forward his vision of a nuclear weapons-free world since taking office in October 2021, with growing concerns about whether Russia will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Earlier, PM Kishida visited the atomic bomb warning site with US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel in March.

In 2016, former US President Barack Obama visited the museum, delivered a speech and met representatives of atomic bomb victims, called hibakusha in Japanese, at Peace Memorial Park.

Meanwhile, Tokyo and Washington are considering US President Joe Biden's visit to Mexico, which the United States also hit by an atomic bomb in the final days of World War II, when he travels to Japan for the G-7 summit next year, the source added.