Japan hopes US president will visit A-bomb cities soon

TOKYO: Hopes are growing in Japan that Barack Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the only two cities ever devastated by atomic bombs. US officials, however, have not sent encouraging signals about such a visit.

An April speech Obama gave in Prague calling for a world free of nuclear weapons raised expectations, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month heightened them further.

"Many of the past Nobel Peace Laureates have visited (Japan's) ground zero," the Hiroshima-based Chugoku newspaper said in an editorial. "We urge him to go and see the place himself and renew his commitment to a nuclear-free world."