Japan PM Shinzo Abe pays respects at Hawaii cemeteries

The meeting at Pearl Harbor will likely be the last between and Obama and Abe before Trump takes office January 20.

Pointing out that the main Asian battlefield of the World Anti-Fascist War was in China, Hua said that Japan “could not turn the page of history” without reconciliation with Asian victim countries including China.

The historic visit capped decades of warming Japan-U.S. relations following the day that President Franklin Roosevelt famously promised “will live in infamy”.

“They were doing what they were supposed to do, and we were doing what we were supposed to do”, Mr. Rodrigues said before Abe’s visit.

“The U.S. -Japanese alliance stands as the cornerstone of peace and stability in the Asia Pacific …” -Japanese alliance “has never been stronger”.

He added, “In good times and in bad we’re there for each other”. Abe also held up the US-Japanese alliance as an example of how even the most committed enemies can become friends through hard work and diplomacy. “This is the enduring truth of this hallowed harbor”.

To date, the “U.S. remains the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons, of which the side effects are still being felt today, seventy years later”, the veterans note.

But the Japanese leader extended an olive branch to Trump, becoming the first foreign leader to meet with him after his November victory. There is also I think a consideration in the Japanese ruling circles that because of the fact that Trump is coming in and he has made these kind of statements and has brought into question the dependability of the U.S. as an ally that Japan could turn in a different direction, that could turn toward seeking more of an alliance, for instance, with Russian Federation.

Abe’s visit will come just a few months after Barack Obama became the first sitting United States president to officially visit a Hiroshima memorial in Japan. Over the past four years, the two leaders have collaborated on issues including trade, disputed islands in the South China Sea, and the US military presence in Okinawa.

At the ceremony Tuesday, Obama praised Japan for contributions to regional security.

Abe, who is the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the Arizona memorial, is expected to strike a similar theme in his remarks as Obama did in Hiroshima by acknowledging the loss and suffering from Japan’s surprise attack but stopping short of an apology.

“Our countries, which have eradicated hatred and cultivated friendship and trust on the basis of common values, are now, and especially now, taking responsibility for appealing to the world about the importance of tolerance and the power of reconciliation”, Abe said. Most of the visitors we met at the World War II Memorial agreed.

“Although this will be my last time addressing you as president, I want you to know that, as a citizen, my gratitude will remain and our commitment to standing by you every step of the way”. While nominally to strengthen Japan’s capacity to support the U.S. militarily, the Abe government is intent on ensuring that Japanese imperialism is able to prosecute its own economic and strategic interests by force if needed.

“This visit is an opportunity to remember those who died in war, demonstrate a resolve that the horrors of war must never be repeated, and at the same time in send a message about the reconciliation between Japan and the United States”, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in early December, when the trip was announced.

On Monday, Abe visited a memorial marker for Lt. Fusata Iita, commander of the 3rd Aircraft Group of the Japanese Imperial Navy, at the Marine Corps base in Kaneohe Bay.

That was the closest Abe would get to an apology for the attack.

The two-hour attack killed 2,403 Americans in all, injured more than 1,100 others and sank or heavily damaged eight U.S. battleships.

The last Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor was Shigeru Yoshida, who made a brief stop there in 1951.

But in Washington Tuesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. recognizes lawful uses of the sea, and the same rights apply to the U.S., China and other nations.