Ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit Friday to Hiroshima, a group of more than 70 prominent scholars and activists have joined a growing chorus calling for the American leader to do more in the final months of his term to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

In a statement issued Monday, the group — which includes such luminaries as Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and Herbert Bix — praised Obama for his plan to visit the atom-bombed city but urged him to follow through on his 2009 speech in Prague.

In that widely lauded address, Obama's first major policy speech as president, he vowed to take concrete steps toward riding the globe of nuclear arms.