BARACK OBAMA was urged to apologise on behalf of the US yesterday for dropping two atomic bombs on Japanese cities as he became the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima.

Mr Obama expressed disappointment for the atrocities that killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima on August 6 1945, and 70,000 in Nagasaki three days later.

But he stopped short of apologising for the nuclear genocide carried out by his country.

He instead reflected on the horrors of war and his hope that Hiroshima would be remembered as the beginning of a “moral awakening.”

After laying a wreath at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, Mr Obama said: “Death fell from the sky and the world was changed.”

The bombing, he said, “demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.

“We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell … we listen to a silent cry.”

Mr Obama said he looked forward to the day when there was an end to the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.

“We must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them,” he said. “We may not realise this goal in my lifetime but persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe.

“We can chart a course that leads to the destruction of these stockpiles.”

Peace activists welcomed Mr Obama’s visit, calling it a “truly historic moment for a US president” to visit a place where his country “caused so much devastation and suffering by its use of nuclear weapons” but said he should have simply apologised.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Kate Hudson said: “It’s a devastation that should never have happened. It was not necessary to end the second world war — the Japanese government was already trying to surrender.

“The historical record needs to be set straight and an apology is an important part of that process.

“In this context we call on President Obama to call time on the nuclear age, to turn his stated commitment to nuclear disarmament into reality and show global leadership in a nuclear disarmament process.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Mr Obama’s visit courageous and long-awaited.

He said it would help the suffering of survivors and echoed the anti-nuclear sentiments.

“At any place in the world, this tragedy must not be repeated again,” Mr Abe said.

One of those attending the commemoration was Kinuyo Ikegami, 82, who survived the explosion.

Tears ran down her face as she described the immediate aftermath of the bomb.

“I could hear schoolchildren screaming: ‘Help me! Help me!’” she said.

“It was too pitiful, too horrible. Even now it fills me with emotion.”

Han Jeong Soon, the 58-year-old daughter of a Korean survivor, said: “The suffering, such as illness, gets carried on over the generations — that is what I want President Obama to know,” she said. 

“I want him to understand our sufferings.”

Obama’s visit is a moment 71 years in the making. Other US presidents considered coming, but only Jimmy Carter actually visited, as a former president, in 1984.