Time To Reciprocate: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe To Visit Pearl Harbor In December

By Shubham Ghosh - 06 Dec '16 11:01AM

Less than a year ago, US President Barack Obama's short but historic visit to Hiroshima in Japan was perceived as a great gesture. Now, it is time for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to return the favor.

Abe will visit Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, later this month and will go down in history as the first Japanese leader to do so since Japan's attack on the site in 1941 which had left over 2,300 American servicemen dead and saw the US joining World War II just as the nuclear attack in Hiroshima had made Japan surrender to end the war four years later. Abe, however, is not the first from his family to visit Pearl Harbor. His wife Akie Abe had visited the site in August this year.

"I am aware that there are various debates and views about Pearl Harbor, but I believe we must go beyond hatred and anger, and pass down these memories to following generations," AFP had quoted Akie speaking about her visit which was a surprising one.

Abe, who met the American President-Elect Donald Trump last month in New York, said he will visit Hawaii on December 26-27 to pray for the dead at the Pearl Harbor naval base and meet President Obama for the final time, reported Washington Times. Obama is set to leave office next month.

Abe used the occasion to showcase the bond between Japan and the US, two close allies in the current international system, and Washington acknowledged the effort.

Japan has been anxious over its ties with the US in the recent times following Trump's words that America's allies should help in paying the cost of stationing US troops in their territories. Abe's meeting with the businessman president-elect was seen as a step towards understanding the mindset of the incoming administration in Washington.

According to the Washington Times report, Abe rejected reports that the Obama administration was against him meeting Trump.

'Abe visit to Pearl Harbor significant'

Keith Henry, founder of Tokyo-based Asia Strategy, described Abe's visit to Pearl Harbor was an "enormous symbolic gesture" by Japan, said a CNN report.

According to Henry, the relationship between Washington and Tokyo is the "lynchpin" of peace in Asia and Abe's focus on reconciliation is an acknowledgement of that fact.