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Hiroshima mayor to send invitation to A-bomb exhibition in Chicago to President Obama

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer

At a press conference on June 23, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said that he will send a letter of invitation to the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition to U.S. President Barack Obama. The exhibition will be jointly organized by the City of Nagasaki and take place in October in Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago is Mr. Obama’s hometown. Holding the exhibition there was decided last year. Mr. Matsui revealed the idea to urge Mr. Obama to come to the exhibition on the heels of his visit to Hiroshima on May 27, saying that the exhibition in Chicago could further ties between the president and the city of Hiroshima. Mr. Matsui said the visit to Hiroshima by Mr. Obama was not met with significant opposition from the American public and he expressed hope that the president’s visit to the exhibition would motivate him to take concrete steps for nuclear disarmament during his remaining time in office.

Mr. Matsui also mentioned organizing other atomic bomb exhibitions, explaining that this could strengthen support by American citizens for the president’s recent visit to Hiroshima.

The Atomic Bomb Exhibition will be held at the Japanese Cultural Center in Chicago from October 1 to 30. The exhibition will include about 20 A-bomb artifacts and panels showing the damage caused by the atomic bombings, and A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima will travel to the United States and speak about the atomic bombing. Mr. Obama was elected to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate after serving in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. For his two presidential campaigns, he located his campaign headquarters both times in Chicago.

(Originally published on June 24, 2016)

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