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Castro hits out at Obama for failing to apologize for US nuking of Japan

Saturday, 13 August 2016 5:27 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 14 August 2016 4:46 AM ]

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has lambasted US President Barack Obama for failing to apologize to Japan during his visit to the East Asian country in May over the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Speaking at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in May, Obama offered no apology for the US bombings of the two Japanese cities but called for a world without nuclear weapons.

Prior to his visit to Japan, the US president said he would not apologize to Japan for the world’s first nuclear bombing that killed more than 140,000 people in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

“The US president's speech in Japan lacked the words to apologize for the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima, even though they (the United States) knew the effects of the bomb,” Castro said in an article published by official media late Friday.

US President Barack Obama (R) walks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after laying wreaths in front of a cenotaph to offer a prayer for victims of the US atomic bombing in 1945, at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on May 27, 2016. ©AFP

Castro, who was speaking as he celebrated his 90th birthday, denounced as “equally criminal” the bombing of Nagasaki three days later on August 9, 1945.

“That's why you have to stress the need to preserve peace and that no power has the right to kill millions of people,” Castro said.

Recalling his own confrontation with America while he was president, he said, “I almost laughed at the Machiavellian plans of US presidents.”

According to Cuban intelligence services, Castro faced 634 plots between 1958 and 2000. Several of those have been substantiated by US officials.

After Obama visited Cuba in March, Castro recalled his country’s long enmity with the US, including Washington's support for the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

The Bay of Pigs invasion was an attempt by a group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro’s government. The botched plot resulted in the deaths of over 100 attackers and the capture of 1,100 others.

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