Hiroshima bombing 'of Japan's own making': China state media

Chinese state media said that the "atomic bombings of Japan were of its own making", ahead of a historic visit to Hiroshima on Friday by US President Barack Obama.

The trip is the first visit to the city by a sitting American President since the world was first shown the potential key to its own destruction in a bombing that claimed the lives of 140,000 people.

The state-run China Daily declared in an editorial on Thursday that the bombings were of Japan's "own making" and accused present-day Japanese officials of "trying to portray Japan as the victim of World War II rather than one of its major perpetrators".

While some in Japan feel the attack was an abomination because it targeted civilians, many Americans and former allied countries say it hastened the end of a brutal and bloody conflict.