New U.S. ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, visits a school in a tsunami-hit area last month.

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Ambassador Caroline Kennedy tours the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

She meets with survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing, which killed as many as 80,000

Kennedy says her family is committed to nuclear disarmament

"President Obama also has been working very hard on this issue," she says

Tokyo CNN  — 

Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, visited Nagasaki on Tuesday, one of two Japanese cities on which the United States dropped atomic bombs during the final days of World War II.

Kennedy, who took up the position of ambassador last month, toured the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and talked with survivors of the nuclear blast that devastated much of the city on August 9, 1945.

In comments at the museum, she referenced her late father, former President John F. Kennedy.

“President Kennedy was very proud that he was able to start the process of nuclear disarmament, and all of our family shares the commitment,” she said. “And President Obama also has been working very hard on this issue.”

Caroline Kennedy laid a wreath at the Nagasaki Peace Park for the victims of the bombing, which is estimated to have killed as many as 80,000 people.

She then participated in a tree-planting ceremony to mark the friendship between the United States and Japan.

The bombing of Nagasaki took place three days after the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. That nuclear attack, which is estimated to have killed as many as 140,000 people, was the first use of an atomic bomb in warfare.

Five days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan agreed to surrender, ending the war.

Caroline Kennedy, Japan and JFK’s legacy