Story highlights
- "It tugs at all of your sensibilities as a human being," John Kerry says of the memorial in Hiroshima
- The U.S. secretary of state and other G7 foreign ministers visited a Hiroshima memorial Monday
- State Department official: Kerry won't apologize for U.S. using nuclear weapons in WWII
Hiroshima, Japan (CNN)U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday assailed GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump -- though not by name -- for raising the prospect that Japan and South Korea could seek their own nuclear weapons during a visit to Hiroshima, Japan, a city that knows the horrors of nuclear warfare firsthand.
"Any suggestion by any candidate for high public office that we should be building more weapons and giving them to a country like Korea or Japan are absurd on their face and run counter to everything that every president, Republican or Democrat alike, has tried to achieve ever since World War II," he told the press at a news conference.
Kerry is the first sitting secretary of state to visit the revered memorial to the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.
Kerry, E.U. Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and other foreign ministers from the Group of Seven, who are in Japan for two days of talks, visited the site of the world's first use of an atomic weapon in warfare earlier Monday.
"It is a gut-wrenching display. It tugs at all of your sensibilities as a human being," Kerry said of the memorial.
"It reminds everybody of the extraordinary complexity of choices of war and of what war does to people, to communities, to countries, to the world. This was a display that I will personally never forget."
Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
The United States detonates the world's first atomic bomb at a test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Less than a month later, atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The devastation led to Japan's unconditional surrender and brought an end to World War II.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
In 1939, physicists Albert Einstein, left, and Leo Szilard drafted a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to research atomic bombs before the Germans could build one first. By 1942, the United States had approved the top-secret Manhattan Project to build a nuclear reactor and assemble an atomic bomb.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
In 1942, U.S. Army Col. Leslie R. Groves, left, was appointed to head the Manhattan Project. On the right is physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
Los Alamos workers pose on a platform stacked with 100 tons of TNT. It was to be used to gauge radioactive fallout.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
The Manhattan Project also involved research facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington. Billboards, like this one in Oak Ridge, reminded workers of the project's top-secret nature.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
Workers in New Mexico attach a bomb to a tower two days before its successful test in July 1945.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
Trinity was the code name of the test bomb, which was detonated in the Jornada del Muerto desert.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
Air Force Col. Paul Tibbetts waves from the pilot's seat of the Enola Gay moments before takeoff on August 6, 1945. A short time later, the plane's crew dropped the first atomic bomb in combat, instantly killing 80,000 people in Hiroshima.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
An aerial photograph of Hiroshima shortly after the atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," was dropped.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
U.S. President Harry Truman, aboard a U.S. Navy cruiser, reads reports of the Hiroshima bombing. Eight days earlier, Truman had warned Japan that the country would be destroyed if it did not surrender unconditionally.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
A white silhouette on a Hiroshima bridge shows an area that wasn't scorched by the bomb. It was reportedly the outline of a person's shadow -- someone who was shielded from the blast's heat rays by another person.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
An elderly victim is covered with flies in a makeshift hospital in Hiroshima.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
A worker stands next to an atomic bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," hours before it was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
This photo was taken about six miles from the scene of the Nagasaki explosion. According to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, photographer Hiromichi Matsuda took this photograph 15 minutes after the attack.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
Survivors of the Nagasaki bomb walk through the destruction as fire rages in the background.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
A woman and a child walk in Nagasaki on the day of the bombing. More than 70,000 people there were killed instantly.
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Members of the White House Press Corps rush to telephones after Truman announced Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
An aerial view of Hiroshima three weeks after the atomic bomb.
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Photos: The first use of the atomic bomb
Soldiers and sailors on the USS Missouri watch as Japan's formal surrender is signed in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
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Their trip was a stark reminder that looming over the current round of G7 talks is the history of the city they're being held in. It also came a day after a State Department official said Kerry won't apologize for the twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hiroshima was devastated when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city in August 1945. The bomb, which led to the end of World War II, killed 140,000 people -- either initially from the impact or later due to radiation exposure.
Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on the port city of Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people.
'Everyone in the world' should see this
Under tight security, the diplomats laid wreaths at Peace Memorial Park then walked to the Atomic Bomb Dome. The ruin, which is the only structure left standing near the bomb's hypocenter, serves as a memorial to the people killed in the bombing.
Earlier, they toured the peace museum documenting the devastating impact of the attack. The museum houses victims' and survivors' burnt clothing and personal effects.
Photos: Hiroshima Peace Museum
Photos: Hiroshima Peace Museum
Genbaku Dome – Hiroshima's Atomic Bomb Genbaku Dome became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. When the United States dropped the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, it exploded just above the building.
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Photos: Hiroshima Peace Museum
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum – Visits by foreign tourists to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum hit a record high of 338,891 in 2015.
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Photos: Hiroshima Peace Museum
Reliving the tragedy – Visitors come to bear witness to preserved burnt wreckage, painful survivor testimonies and human shadows left permanently visible after the atomic bomb explosion's incandescent destruction.
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Photos: Hiroshima Peace Museum
Remembering the war – Each August, remembrance events are held in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.
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Photos: Hiroshima Peace Museum
A-Bomb Dome – Designed in 1915 by a Czech architect, Hiroshima's Atomic Bomb Genbaku Dome served as the city's Industrial Promotion Hall in 1945. The bomb didn't destroy it completely because the immediate blast and heat buffered the air at ground zero.
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Photos: Hiroshima Peace Museum
Mushroom clouds – Numerous photographs of the mushroom cloud created when the atomic bomb was dropped are on display in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
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Together, these three sites stand as a powerful symbol for nuclear disarmament.
"Everyone in the world should see and feel the power of this memorial. It is a stark, harsh, compelling reminder not only of our obligation to end the threat of nuclear weapons, but to rededicate all our effort to avoid war itself," Kerry wrote in a message in the site's guestbook.
"War must be the last resort -- never the first choice. This memorial compels us all to redouble our efforts to change the world, to find peace and build the future so yearned for by citizens everywhere."
No apology
Despite the message's tone, a senior State Department official traveling with Kerry said emphatically that America's top diplomat will not issue an apology for its use of nuclear weapons and the devastation it caused.
Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor shares story of survival 02:58
"If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologize, the answer is no," the official said. "If you are asking whether the secretary -- and I think all Americans and all Japanese -- are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes."
Before he visited the memorial, Kerry spoke with Fumio Kishida, the Japanese foreign minister.
"My visit to Hiroshima has very special meaning about the strength of our relationship and the journey we have traveled together since the difficult time of the war," Kerry said.
"We will revisit the past and honor those who perished, (but) this trip is not about the past; it's about the present and the future."
More on the agenda
The Japanese government and public hope the location of the summit in Hiroshima will foster better understanding among nations about Japan's staunch nuclear stance.
White House on Trump's call for nuclear proliferation 02:32
Kashida also addressed Trump's proposal that Japan and South Korea arm themselves with nuclear weapons, which has raised eyebrows in Japan.
"For us to obtain nuclear weapons is completely inconceivable," Kishida said Monday.
But Kerry has much more than his visit to the Hiroshima memorial on the agenda.
During the first day of talks, the G7 -- made up of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- discussed the Syrian civil war, the migrant crisis facing Europe and violence in Ukraine, aides traveling with Kerry said.
70 years since Hiroshima bombing 02:37
Kerry also led a discussion about the political chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, after having visited both countries this week. The fight against ISIS also dominated the discussions. Some of the European members are grappling with security challenges after recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris.
But Japan hopes to highlight pressing concerns in Asia, including China's activities in the South China Sea and the North Korean nuclear threat.
Kerry stressed why he believes the G7 and and international cooperation are important.
"The peaceful stable international system that we have built in the decades since WWII are not a given," he said. "They're not automatic. They require work, investment, leadership."
Kerry's trip to Hiroshima could also pave the way for President Barack Obama to visit the city next month, when he travels to Japan for the G7 leaders summit, fueling speculation of whether he may issue a formal apology for the bombing and the devastation it caused.
The senior State Department official said the White House had not made a formal decision.
