Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Pearl Harbor before the end of the year — the first such trip of any Japanese leader — in order to “console the souls of the victims” who died in his country’s attack against the United States in 1941.
“I would like to show to the world the resolve that horrors of war should never be repeated,” Abe said Monday.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama and Abe first spoke of the upcoming visit, set for Dec. 26-27, when they both attended the APEC summit in Lima, Peru last month.
“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’s visit follows President Obama’s trip to Hiroshima, a Japanese city that was struck by American nuclear weapons in 1945. It’s a diplomatic dance that could provide symbolic momentum for the re-arming of Japan, which is now a key U.S. ally but had severe restrictions imposed on its military following its surrender at the end of World War II.
“I suspect seeing the Japanese prime minister and American president in Pearl Harbor at the memorial at the USS Arizona just a couple weeks after the 75th anniversary will be similarly powerful,” Earnest said Monday.
Obama and Abe agreed last year to increase military cooperation after opened the door to giving Japan greater latitude in “exercising its right of collective self-defense” in 2013.
“With China’s growing assertiveness and North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Japan, like a lot of allies, wants to be there for us so we’ll be there for them,” Michael J. Green, the senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, explained to the New York Times. “It allows the U.S. military to plan Japan in, so that when we turn to them and say, ‘Can you deal with our left flank?,’ the Japanese, in principle, now can do that.”
Japanese military power was a bone of contention during the presidential election, as President-elect Trump complained that Japan wasn’t paying the full cost of U.S. forces defending the island nation. After the election, Abe was the first foreign leader to have a face-to-face meeting with Trump. “The alliance becomes alive only when there is trust between us,” he said when explaining the trip. “I would like to build such a trust with Mr Trump.”
Abe’s diplomatic overtures don’t just extend to the United States. He has also traveled to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, raising hopes in the Russian government that they might undermine the U.S. alliance with Japan.
“It’s an important visit that shows that Japan has decided not to put all its eggs in one basket,” Alexei Pushkov, a member of Russian parliament, said in May.
Gabby Morrongiello contributed to this report
