Memories of Aug 6, 1945, must never fade, Obama says on historic Hiroshima visit

Barack Obama has become the first serving US president to visit Hiroshima since the World War Two nuclear attack. President Obama walks toward the cenotaph for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.

President Barack Obama lays wreaths in front of a cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park'.At least 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and another 74,000 three days later in a second bombing in Nagasaki.

President Barack Obama, third from right, walks off Marine One helicopter at the landing zone in western Japan after arriving Hiroshima.

President Obama hugs Shigeaki Mori, an atomic bomb survivor and creator of the memorial for American WWII POWs killed at Hiroshima, during a ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

The Atomic Bomb Dome at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is reflected in the Motoyasu River.

Barack Obama first visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum before walking to the Peace Memorial Park, accompanied by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

President Obama greets a school student as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe watches after delivering their speeches

People gather to wait for the arrival of President Obama

Barack Obama first visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum before walking to the Peace Memorial Park. He was accompanied by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.Mr Obama and Mr Abe both laid wreaths at the Peace Memorial Park

President Obama is escorted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.

“Seventy-one years ago on a bright, cloudless morning,” President Barack Obama said, “death fell from the sky and the world was changed.” The speech ranged widely, from the human history of violence to the suffering of all of the second world war’s victims. He moved on to urge the destruction of the world’s stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

A picture shows the wreath U.S. President Barack Obama laid at a cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sees President Barack Obama off following his visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima

President Barack Obama boards Air Force One at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Iwakuni, Japan on Friday en route to Washington after visiting Hiroshima, Japan.