Barack Obama will become the first serving U.S. president to visit Hiroshima during a trip to Japan later this month, the White House announced Tuesday.
The historic visit will "highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," it said in a statement.
Obama will travel to the site where America dropped the atomic bomb during World War II in the company of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as part of a wider trip that will also include Vietnam.
The White House has said the United States does not owe Japan a formal apology for using the atomic bomb in August 1945.
Instead, officials say the visit will serve as a reminder the terrible destruction that nuclear weapons can inflict.
