Michael Douglas hopes Obama has ‘something strong to say’ in Hiroshima
Actor Michael Douglas said Thursday that President Obama has been a “disappointment” on moving toward a nuclear-free world and should consider his legacy during his historic trip to Hiroshima, Japan, later this month.
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in Geneva, Douglas, 71, a so-called U.N. messenger of peace recalled Obama’s 2009 speech in Prague vowing that the United States would take “concrete steps” toward nuclear-free world, according to a report from Reuters.
{mosads}”I think we could say he’s been a disappointment because there’s not been follow through, and I do hope now for his legacy as he begins to leave office, that he’s going to have something strong to say at Hiroshima,” Douglas said.
Obama is slated to become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima on May 27 during a trip to Vietnam and Japan, the White House announced earlier this week. He’ll meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and speak at a park memorializing victims of the world’s first nuclear bombing, according to White House officials.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Tuesday Obama has no plans to apologize for the U.S. dropping the bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 at the end of World War II but instead plans to “send a much more forward-looking signal about his ambition for realizing the goals of a planet without nuclear weapons.”
“I guess one of his strengths, or weaknesses depending how you look at it, is his unpredictability,” he said.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.