Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak said he is ready to visit Hiroshima in February ahead of the 60th anniversary in March of the fatal U.S. hydrogen bomb test over Bikini Atoll that exposed nearly two dozen Japanese fishermen to radiation.
In an interview in Majuro on Tuesday, Loeak stressed the close link between Japan and the Marshall Islands, saying the two share the "effects of nuclear weapons," a reference to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
Some residents of the islands were exposed to fallout from the H-bomb test, code-named Bravo, which was conducted on March 1, 1954, on Bikini Atoll. The Japanese tuna trawler Fukuryu Maru No. 5 was also exposed to the fallout.