John Kerry on historic Hiroshima trip

In a city obliterated by a US atom bomb more than 70 years ago, Japan kicked off a gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies with a call to end nuclear weapons. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, said on Sunday that ministers will also discuss anti-terrorism steps, maritime security and issues related to North Korea, Ukraine and the Middle East. 

John Kerry and his counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will on Monday visit an atomic bomb museum and lay flowers at a cenotaph for nuclear bomb victims, becoming the first in his post to do so. 

The move could possibly pave the way for a never-before visit to Hiroshima by a US President when Barack Obama attends the annual meeting of G7 leaders in Japan next month. During World War II, a US warplane dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people by the end of that year. Three days later, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days later.