The grandson of former U.S. president Harry Truman, who authorized the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945, visited Hiroshima Saturday and offered a silent prayer for victims of the nuclear attack.

Japan's Kyodo news agency says Clifton Truman Daniel is in Japan at the invitation of the nonprofit peace organization Sadako Legacy to attend the 67th anniversary of the bombings on August 6 in Hiroshima and three days later in Nagasaki.

He is the first Truman relative to attend the ceremonies, which tens of thousands of people attend every year to remember the 200,000 people who died in the attacks or later of radiation poisoning.

Harry Truman became the 33rd U.S. president on April 12, 1945 upon the death of president Franklin Roosevelt. As vice president for only a few weeks, Mr. Truman rarely met with the president, and, as vice president, never received a briefing on the development of the atomic bomb.