CBS correspondent Margaret Brennan said Friday it was "remarkable" that President Obama didn't offer an apology in his Hiroshima speech for the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb.
Obama participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park honoring those killed in the blast in 1945. He spoke afterward about bringing an end to the nuclear age and promoting diplomacy over warfare.
"We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell," Obama said. "We listen to a silent cry."
"The speech was remarkable for what it did not say," Brennan said in her narration. "There was no apology for Harry Truman's decision to drop the bomb."
The Enola Gay dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, a second bomb fell on Nagasaki.
The bombs killed more than estimated 100,000 people in the cities at the time, and they remain the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare in history. President Truman saw their use as the best way to shorten World War II, and he stood by his decision to order their use for the rest of his life.
"When you have the weapon that'll win the war, it'd be foolish if you didn't use it," Truman said.
The Empire of Japan, whose sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 led to the U.S. entering World War II, swiftly surrendered after the second bomb was dropped, ending the global bloodshed and eliminating the need for an invasion.
Experts believe invading Japan would have resulted in far more casualties than those that resulted with the dropping of the atomic bombs, with some predictions numbering in the millions.
A CBS poll reported sharp American division on Truman's decision to drop the bomb. Forty-three percent approved, while 44 percent stood against it. In 2005, support stood at 57 percent, while just 38 percent did not approve.