Hibakusha group says Obama Hiroshima speech 'avoided responsibility'

A group of atomic bomb survivors on Thursday criticized U.S. President Barack Obama's recent speech in Hiroshima, saying it "avoided U.S. responsibility" for the atomic bombing of the city and did not address problems toward nuclear abolition.

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations adopted a resolution in Tokyo that said Obama's speech delivered at Peace Memorial Park on May 27 included expressions meant to avoid U.S. responsibility by referring to the atomic bombing "as if it was a natural phenomenon."

Obama, who became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the city devastated by the U.S. atomic bombing in World War II, said at the beginning of his 17-minute speech, "Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed."