The Group of Seven summit that started Friday in Hiroshima marks the latest occasion in a history of leaders and high-ranking politicians making symbolic visits to the world's first atomic bombed city.
Within the G-7 itself, heads of state from the United States, Italy and the former West Germany have previously visited the western Japan city that was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. The summit, meanwhile, marks the first ever visits by serving leaders of Canada and nuclear-possessing Britain and France.
Among nations outside the G-7 invited to the summit, Indian leader Narendra Modi's visit is the first since the country successfully tested a nuclear weapon in 1974, although the country's foreign minister visited in 1995.
As the chair of the summit, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents a Hiroshima constituency, has made "a world without nuclear weapons" a key theme.
In April 2016, ahead of Japan's hosting of that year's summit the following month, Kishida as then foreign minister welcomed his G-7 counterparts to Hiroshima for an itinerary featuring a tour of the Peace Memorial Park and its museum devoted to the atomic bombing, and making floral offerings at the cenotaph for the victims.
At that year's summit, then U.S. President Barack Obama made history by visiting the city, during which he gave a speech, spoke briefly with two atomic bomb survivors and saw a selection of exhibits from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum for about 10 minutes.
Apart from Obama, the Hiroshima city government's records show that Italian presidents have visited on two occasions in 1982 and 1998, while a West German president also did so in 1970.
Former G-7 leaders, too, have paid visits to Hiroshima, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1984. Ex-leaders from France, Germany and Canada have also traveled to the city, according to the Hiroshima city government.
Outside of the G-7 member states, a separate tour planned for Sunday by the so-called outreach nations is set to include a mix of significant moments and historic firsts for their leaders.
Among them is South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is expected to go with Kishida to the cenotaph for Korean atomic bomb victims caught up in the attack. Mindan, a Korean residents' union in Japan, estimates that at least 20,000 people from the country died in the Hiroshima atomic bombing.
According to the Hiroshima city government, it is the first time in their records dating from 1963 that a South Korean leader has visited Hiroshima.
