Tokyo, May 27

President Barack Obama on Friday arrived in Hiroshima, the first visit by a sitting US president to the site of the world\'s first atomic bombing.

\"Seventy-one years ago on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed,\" Obama said at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. He was being accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Obama flew into the Iwakuni US base, some 40 km from Hiroshima, after leaving the G7 summit.

\"A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city, and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.\"

At least 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, in what was the world\'s first nuclear bombing. Two days later a second nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing another 74,000.

Obama\'s remarks expressed sadness and regret but stopped short of an apology. They came after he laid a wreath on the cenotaph bearing an inscription in Japanese: \"Let all the souls here rest in peace; For we shall not repeat the evil.\"

\"Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder the terrible force unleashed in the not so distant past. We come to mourn the dead,\" Obama said.

In the museum\'s guest book, the president wrote that he hoped the world will \"find the courage, together, to spread peace, and pursue a world without nuclear weapons.\"

Obama\'s visit to the site of the devastation in August 1945 that killed over 140,000 people in one go was at least six years in the making inside the White House.

Japanese officials had initially discouraged Obama from coming, but the final ground was paved by Secretary of State John Kerry, who visited the memorial and museum in April.

Former president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) had visited Hiroshima in May 1984, after the end of his term in office.

Obama is expected to meet some survivors of the blast, most of whom were young children at the time their city was destroyed and at least 140,000 lives were lost.

Sunao Tsuboi, a survivor, said he \"never imagined (the president) would come while I am alive\".

\"We do not need apologies,\" Tsuboi added.

\"I hope that he will present in Hiroshima what is good for the happiness of humankind. I would like to join hands with each other through the power of reason and beyond hatred.\"

Nanjing should not be forgotten, Chinese FM tells world

Beijing, May 27

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday reminded the international community of the scars left by the Nanjing massacre in 1937.

Wang said while Hiroshima is worthy of attention, Nanjing should not be forgotten and deserves even more attention, Xinhua news agency reported.

Wang made the remarks when asked to comment on foreign leaders\' visits to Hiroshima arranged by the Japanese government.

A US warplane dropped an atomic bomb in Hiroshima in 1945 towards the end of the World War II to end the ferocious aggression of Japanese troops.

On December 13, 1937, Japanese troops captured China\'s Nanjing city, then capital of the country, and started barbarous killing that lasted over a month.

More than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers who had laid down their arms were murdered and over 20,000 women were raped.

\"The victims deserve sympathy,\" he said, \"but the perpetrators could never shake off their responsibility.\"

On December 13 every year since 2014, China marks National Memorial Day for Nanjing massacre victims.

Obama makes historic trip to Hiroshima