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Trump criticizes Obama for not mentioning Pearl Harbor attack

Xinhua, May 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Saturday criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for visiting Hiroshima while neglecting to mention the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

"Does President Obama ever discuss the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor while he's in Japan? Thousands of American lives lost," Trump said on his Twitter.

Obama on Friday became the first incumbent U.S. president to visit Hiroshima since his country dropped an atomic bomb on the city 71 years ago in order to accelerate the end of World War Two (WWII), which was partially waged by Japan.

However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had no specific plans to visit Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which was attacked by the Japanese military on Dec. 7, 1941, killing more than 2,400 people and leading Washington's entry into WWII.

As many observers and U.S. local media have pointed out, with the end of Obama's last term in office approaching in January 2017, he hopes to cement his legacy as an advocate of nuclear disarmament by claiming the title of the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima.

On the Japanese side, Tokyo wants to take Obama to Hiroshima, not because it wants an apology or calls for a nuclear-free world. Instead, Japan is more interested in highlighting the tragedy of Hiroshima while ignoring the sufferings of countries that it brutalized before and during WWII.

Japan is trying to downplay its role as an aggressor and attempting to portray itself as a victim, observers believe. Endi