 On June 12 , 1959 , Castro sent Guevara out on a three @-@ month tour of 14 mostly Bandung Pact countries ( Morocco , Sudan , Egypt , Syria , Pakistan , India , Sri Lanka , Burma , Thailand , Indonesia , Japan , Yugoslavia , Greece ) and the cities of Singapore and Hong Kong . Sending Guevara away from Havana allowed Castro to appear to be distancing himself from Guevara and his Marxist sympathies , which troubled both the United States and some of Castro 's July 26 Movement members . While in Jakarta , Guevara visited Indonesian president Sukarno to discuss the recent revolution in Indonesia and to establish trade relations between their two nations . Both men quickly bonded , as Sukarno was attracted to Guevara 's energy and his relaxed informal approach ; moreover they shared revolutionary leftist aspirations against western imperialism . Guevara next spent 12 days in Japan ( July 15 – 27 ) , participating in negotiations aimed at expanding Cuba 's trade relations with that nation . During the visit , he refused to visit and lay a wreath at Japan 's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier commemorating soldiers lost during World War II , remarking that the Japanese " imperialists " had " killed millions of Asians " . In its place , Guevara stated that he would instead visit Hiroshima , where the American military had detonated an atom @-@ bomb 14 years earlier . Despite his denunciation of Imperial Japan , Guevara also considered President Truman a " macabre clown " for the bombings , and after visiting Hiroshima and its Peace Memorial Museum , he sent back a postcard to Cuba stating " In order to fight better for peace , one must look at Hiroshima . " 
