As the foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations met in Hiroshima, speculation was growing that U.S. President Barack Obama will visit the city when he comes to Japan next month for the G-7 leaders' summit in Mie Prefecture.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's presence at the Hiroshima meeting was seen as one way to test whether a first-ever U.S. presidential visit to Hiroshima would be a good idea or one whose time has yet to come.
For some Americans visiting the city and for Hiroshima natives, there was support for a presidential visit, a feeling Obama would not have to offer any sort of an apology, and hope that it would draw attention to the horrors of nuclear war and help put the past to rest.