According to a controversial leak provided by WikiLeaks - and picked up in stories by news outlets from AP to NPR - Barack Obama s administration was politely advised by the Japanese in September 2009 that there would be no need for the presidential entourage to go to Hiroshima, apparently to apologize for the dropping of the atomic bomb 64 years earlier.

Groups representing atomic bomb survivors and opponents of nuclear weapons have criticized the government following the release of a secret U.S. cable indicating that Japan's Foreign Ministry discouraged U.S. President Barack Obama from visiting Hiroshima.

Two once-confidential cables from the U.S. consulate in Okinawa reveal the closed-door political dealings that have run underneath the Futenma Air Station controversy in recent years. The cables, both of which were released by Wikileaks in May, show how diplomats from the United States and Japan have pursued a compromise that will preserve a base relocation plan but allow Okinawan politicians to keep their public promises.

Japan dragged its feet after Washington asked Tokyo to provide information on private airports and ports in 2008 following North Korea's missile launches and nuclear test in 2006, U.S. diplomatic cables showed.