It began last month with a comment from Secretary of State John Kerry after a diplomatic function in Hiroshima, Japan.

Kerry said everyone with an opportunity to do so should visit the site of the atomic bomb blast that ended World War II.

A White House reporter shot back: President Barack Obama will be in Japan next month, will he take Kerry’s advice?

The eventual answer was yes.

Obama will go to Hiroshima with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 27 after attending the annual Group of Seven summit.

The city was destroyed by a U.S. atomic bomb Aug. 6, 1945. Some 140,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered nine days later.

Now the speculation is whether Obama might apologize for the bombing. He should not.

Obama has a reputation and a proclivity for making mea culpas for what he perceives as the sins of his predecessors. Some widely reported examples:

n “In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.” (apologizing to Europeans, Strasbourg, France, April 3, 2009).

n “We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect. But if you look at the track record, as you say, America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that.” (apologizing to Muslims, Al Arabiya interview, Jan. 27, 2009.)

n “Like me, the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs ... I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so.” (apologizing to the United Nations for “The Innocence of Muslims,” an anti-Muslim video his administration blamed for sparking riots in Benghazi, Libya, Sept. 25, 2012.)

Obama’s predecessors Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were the ones to put World War II to rest. They would have apologized 70 years ago if they’d thought an apology was appropriate. They didn’t.

If anyone wants to go the apology route, then they should revisit the Bataan death march, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the destroyer attack that split John F. Kennedy’s Navy PT boat. They should go the Nazi death camps where Eisenhower made sure the local officials toured, so they couldn’t claim later that they didn’t know what went on there.

Were apologies ever sought or offered for any of these savage acts of aggression?

Wars do not end with apologies. They end with surrenders, trials, reparations and peace accords.

And in the case of World War II, the fighting ended with something even more remarkable: the victors rebuilt the vanquished nations. Germany and Japan became allies and citizens of the free world. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the military governor of Japan from 1945 to 1951, is revered as a hero-statesman by the Japanese people to this day.

Most understand the atomic bomb brought an end to atrocities that otherwise might have continued several more years.

Obama and Abe’s joint visit to Hiroshima symbolically strengthens the bond between the U.S. and postwar Democratic Japan. It should remind the world about the horrible consequences of international aggression and threat of nuclear war.

The Obama administration has signaled that the question of an apology was debated and rejected. That’s good. No apology for Hiroshima is expected. None is necessary. None should be extended.