U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, second in line for the presidency, has become the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the memorial site of the world’s first atomic bomb attack at Hiroshima, Japan. 

Pelosi is in Japan for a meeting of the world’s largest industrialized countries, the G-8. During the trip the eight representatives all went to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park to pay their respects to the civilians killed during World War II by the first atomic bomb.

Although no sitting President or Vice President has ever visited this memorial, Pelosi’s visit may be an abode of things to come. She is second in line of the presidency, after Vice President Dick Cheney.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter did visit the memorial once, but he did so in 1984, after he was replaced by Republican Ronald Reagan.

The use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima was and remains a hotly debated issue. Some argue that the U.S. had to use the bomb against the Japanese because, if it would not have been used, they would have continued to fight for years, costing many Americans their lives.

Others, on the other hand, believe the bombing to be useless since Japan was all but beaten when the bomb dropped on 6 August 1945 and killed more than 140,000 people most of whom civilians.

Only three days later the United States used another atomic bomb, this time against the Japanese city of Nagasaki. This bombing killed approximately 80,000 people.

Although the visit may be debated somewhat in the U.S., the Japanese are happy with Pelosi’s visit. “As a Japanese, I am grateful that they are thinking about this and have all gathered here, the site of the atomic bombing,” said Genyu Izawa, a Buddhist priest.

The political and military necessity of the bombing may be debated for years, but what remains without doubt is that the two bombs destroyed many thousands of lives, both before and after they exploded.

Pelosi’s visit may be the first step on a long path towards mutual understanding and forgiveness between Japan and the U.S. World War II was a long, terrible war in which both countries committed horrible excesses, for which both still have to take full responsibility.

Especially the Japanese often do not talk about the crimes committed by them and their ancestors, while it should be clear by now that ‘right’ was on the side of the Allied West, not on the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis.

Perhaps Pelosi’s visit may change the dynamics of the historical debate.

More importantly, though, her visit may very well give survivers of the bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki the closure they need to carry on and the understanding they need to forgive.