Japan Press Weekly

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2016 December 7 - 13 [POLITICS]

PM Abe to visit Pearl Harbor to bury the past

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on December 5 announced that he will visit Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in late December. His aim is to draw a curtain over Japan’s past of waging a war against the United States.

PM Abe said to reporters, “I would like to display the resolution that horrors of war should never be repeated.” He added that he wants to make his visit an opportunity to show to the world the reconciliation between Japan and the U.S. as well as the significance of the further strengthened bilateral alliance.

In a news program aired later in the same day, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira said, “I will pay close attention to what message Abe will send out from Pearl Harbor.”

On December 7, 1941 (local time), the Imperial Japanese Navy made a surprise attack on the naval base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet located in Pearl Harbor, launching the Pacific War. More than 2,300 U.S. servicepersons were killed in that strike.

Past related article:
> Shii on Obama visit to Hiroshima: historic step forward [May 28, 2016]