Abe won’t apologise at Pearl Harbor

Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won’t apologise for Japan’s attack when he visits the US naval base at Pearl Harbor later this month, the government spokesman said today. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said “the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology.”

Revisiting history: The battleship USS Arizona sinks after being hit in a Japanese air attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawai, on December 7, 1941. AFP

Tokyo, December 6

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won’t apologise for Japan’s attack when he visits the US naval base at Pearl Harbor later this month, the government spokesman said today. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said “the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology.”

Abe announced late yesterday that he would have a summit meeting with President Barack Obama in Hawaii and visit Pearl Harbor. He will be the first Japanese leader to go to the site of the Japanese attack that propelled the US into World War II.

The unexpected announcement came two days before the 75th anniversary of the attack and six months after Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima for victims of the US atomic bombing of that city at the end of the same war. The White House confirmed that Obama and Abe would visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on December 27.

It said “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 announcement of the summit comes as Japan worries about the direction of US foreign policy under Obama’s successor, Donald Trump.

Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, said that together with Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, the Pearl Harbor visit will complete the reconciliation process and help smooth bilateral relations under any administration.

“Historical disputes tend to be brought up when relations become thorny ... but once you put them behind and move on, it makes a difference if there is any negative sentiment in the future,” he said.

But Koichi Nakano, a professor of international politics at Tokyo’s Sophia University, said the Pearl Harbor visit and Abe’s commitment to the Japan-US alliance are tantamount to “giving a blank check to Trump” despite the uncertainty over bilateral relations under his administration. More than 2,300 US servicemen died in the aerial attack. — AP