More than seven decades after America's nuclear bomb fell on Hiroshima, Japan, the once-devastated city now symbolizes people's fervent aspirations for peace -- once crushed by the island country's imperialist rampage.

The passage of time has yet to blot out the potent memories of the unprecedented bombing in the southwestern Japanese city as vivid photos and remains from the bombing are well kept at an archive here apparently in the hopes of preventing another reckless use of violence.

Hiroshima, which was bombed on Aug. 6, 1945, has become the center of the international spotlight as U.S. President Barack Obama will pay a symbolic visit to the city -- for the first time as a sitting American president -- on May 27. He will visit the city after attending a G7 summit slated to take place from May 26-27 in Ishe-Shima, Mie Prefecture.

The archive inside the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park displayed various items that harked back to the throes of devastation and the aftermath of severe radiation exposure that killed many including South Koreans forced to work in the city during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

One photo on display showed a bed-ridden boy whose face was covered with numerous spots caused by subcutaneous bleeding. There were also a series of wax figures that symbolized people seriously injured in the wake of the nuclear bombing.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry cast those photos and other displays as a "gut-wrenching" one that "tugged at all your sensibilities as a human being." Last month, Kerry became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the city.

The archive appeared to have become a pilgrimage -- as well as educational -- site for tourists to Hiroshima. Many students and visitors were seen watching graphic displays while listening to explanations on the once war-torn city from their teachers and tourist agents.

One of the most prominent monuments at the archive was a statue of an ailing girl holding up a folded-paper crane.

The girl is Sasaki Sadako, a 10-year-old girl who died from leukemia in 1955 as a result of radiation exposure. Now a symbol of the victims of the bombing, Sadako tried to fold 1,000 paper cranes as she believed that the cranes would help her end her unbearable illness. She died after folding 964 cranes.

Close to the archive lies a special monument commemorating Korean victims in the bombing. Historians presume that among some 80,000 Koreans who resided in Hiroshima, around 20,000 lost their lives in the bombing.

It is unclear whether Obama would pay respect to this monument, but calls here have been mounting for him to give "due and equal" attention to Korean victims and take caution not to give the impression that Japan was a victim rather than an aggressor in World War II.

"When he visits Hiroshima, it would be good for Obama to honor Koreans' wishes to see him pay respect to the Korean victims so as to remind people both in Japan and the U.S. that there were innocent Koreans who perished in the bombing," said Chun In-young, professor emeritus at Seoul National University

Shin Dong-ik, the head of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security under the state-run Korean National Diplomatic Academy, said that it is important for Obama to clarify Japan's responsibility for World War II when he visits Hiroshima. He made the call in a contribution to the institute's periodical.

"Should the president of the U.S. -- the closet ally of South Korea -- visit Hiroshima in the serious environment of peninsular and international security, we believe that it is important for him to clarify Japan's responsibility for World War II," he said in the contribution piece.

Controversy has been raging over Obama's possible visit to Hiroshima with critics saying that the visit could spur Japan's rightward political swing and give more weight to its historical revisionism -- a set of moves to glorify or gloss over its past militarism.

The White House has said that Obama's trip to Hiroshima was an effort to highlight the U.S.' commitment to the peace and stability of a "world without nuclear weapons," as it was apparently striving to squelch rumors that the trip to the city could be tantamount to America's apology for the bombing. (Yonhap)