Japanese PM Abe, Obama to visit Pearl Harbor memorial together

BEIJING — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Monday that he would accompany President Barack Obama to Pearl Harbor, making him the first sitting Japanese leader to visit the Hawaiian naval base since the end of World War II.

Mr. Abe told reporters that he will visit a memorial at the site on Dec. 26 and 27. The surprise announcement came two days before the 75th anniversary of Japan’s attack on the base, which killed 2,400 U.S. servicemen and civilians and drew the U.S. into the war.

“This will be a visit to console the souls of the victims,” he said. “I would like to show to the world the resolve that horrors of war should never be repeated.”

Mr. Abe, a staunch conservative who has argued that Japan has been unfairly demonized for its wartime conduct, is seen as uniquely positioned to visit Pearl Harbor. Still, there is disagreement on whether the more conservative forces in Mr. Abe’s right-wing government — who promote a revisionist view of Japan’s history and are seeking to restore Japan’s pride in its imperialist past — would be more likely to savage a more liberal Japanese prime minister for a lack of patriotism.

The trip will reciprocate Mr. Obama’s visit to Hiroshima in May, the first by a sitting U.S. president. Alongside Mr. Abe, Mr. Obama visited the site of the U.S. atomic bombing Aug. 6, 1945, which killed an estimated 140,000 people. He expressed his aspiration to “ultimately eliminate the existence of nuclear weapons,” but stopped short of apologizing for the U.S. attack.

Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, aiming to diminish Washington’s Pacific Fleet. About 200 Japanese aircraft bombed the site, destroying 164 aircraft and several naval vessels, including the Arizona, a 600foot-long battleship whose wreckage still lies at the bottom of the harbor.