Friday, May 27, 2016, President Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. He is the first sitting president to visit the targets of nuclear destruction in Japan since their destruction.

It was 71 years ago when our world was thrust into the horrors of nuclear warfare. The citizens of Hiroshima had no idea of the death and destruction that was about to rain from the sky as they woke from their slumber on that morning. Not only were they unaware, but the rest of the world was also ignorant of the unimaginable levels of the pangs of distress that soon they were about to experience.

War is like smoothing that is hard to describe by just using words. War is man’s inhumanity towards another man, woman or child. War is something that is not just to be written about in the papers, or as told in books. Such conflict disrupts, if not destroys, economy, culture, routine, family and society. You can witness this in the faces of the victims alive as well as deceased. The scars of war are never healed, but they are well hidden.

Nagasaki and Hiroshima were devastated to levels beyond what the human mind could comprehend at that time. The inhabitants of those thriving cities were either evaporated, burned and greatly injured in those attacks. People wandered for days, looking for family members, friends and other survivors. Most were lost, dazed and confused.

So, this event with a sitting American President speaks volumes. It is the wish of this author that his visit promotes healing and will help to ease the generations of hate and anger that have been persistent through the years. The healing has to begin somewhere and hopefully, this visit will begin the discussion to start just that very thing.

Mr. Obama has also met with some of the survivors from that day when the world forever changed on that particular morning. From a height of 6,400 feet, a bright flash appeared in the sky over Hiroshima. Burning shadows into walls, burning flesh and setting fires to the buildings below, the second wave of destruction was rapidly approaching in the form of a deafening boom and blast wave. So much destruction…so much horror.

From destruction to healing. From war to peace. From hatred to love. Mr. Obama is sowing the seeds of love and peace with this historic visit to this very special place in history. The United States of America will never apologize for their actions in this holocaust, but at least we can build a new day and tomorrow with the actions of today.