Abe to visit Hawaii to remember Pearl Harbor victims

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he will visit Pearl Harbor this month with US President Barack Obama “to console the souls” of victims of Japan’s surprise attack on US forces there 75 years ago.

Abe, who will be the first serving Japanese prime minister to visit the naval base in Hawaii, said he wanted to demonstrate resolve to end the horror of war.

This year, Obama become the first serving US president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which the United States attacked with an atomic bomb in 1945.

“I’ll visit Pearl Harbor with President Obama. This will be a visit to console the souls of the victims,” Abe told reporters.

“I would like to show to the world the resolve that horrors of war should never be repeated.”

Abe will visit Hawaii on December 26 and 27 and plans to hold his final summit meeting with the outgoing US president during the trip. Obama has close ties to Hawaii, the island state where he was born and where he and his family have vacationed throughout his White House term.

Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor with torpedo planes, bombers and fighter planes on the morning of December 7, 1941, bombing the US fleet moored there, in the hope of destroying US power in the Pacific.

The attack led to the United States entering World War II and the defeat of Japan in August 1945, days after US atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The White House said Abe’s visit would highlight the alliance between the former wartime enemies. “The two leaders’ visit will showcase the power of reconciliation that has turned former adversaries into the closest of allies, united by common interests and shared values,” the White House said in a statement.

Abe last year spoke to the US Congress and expressed “deep repentance” over Japan’s role in World War II.

Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan campus, said an outright apology from Abe would be unlikely during his Pearl Harbor visit. “He won’t go as far as to apologise, but there will be a demonstration of contrition. He will follow Obama’s model (in Hiroshima). Obama has shown the way forward in addressing the past without whitewashing and denying,” Kingston said.