Obama, Abe visit

Obama, Abe set for historic Pearl Harbor visit

By NOLAN D. MCCASKIL

President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Tuesday at Pearl Harbor, where 75 years ago the Japanese attack on a U.S. naval base precipitated America’s entry into World War II.

“The meeting will be an opportunity for the two leaders to review our joint efforts over the past four years to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance, including our close cooperation on a number of security, economic, and global challenges,” the White House said in a statement Monday evening.

Obama and Abe will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial, which commemorates the sailors who were slain in the attack. Abe will be the first Japanese leader to visit the memorial, which opened in 1962. Afterward, two leaders will deliver remarks at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

“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.

The historic meeting, likely Obama’s last with a foreign leader before he leaves the White House next month, comes amid the president’s annual vacation in Hawaii. It also comes seven months after Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, where, along with Nagasaki, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs in 1945.

In Hiroshima, where he visited its Peace Memorial Park and delivered an address in May, Obama did not apologize for America’s decision to drop bombs on either Japanese city, nor did he reexamine the decision to do so. Instead, Obama insisted that neither nation is “bound by genetic codes to repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Abe suggested to reporters earlier this month that his impending visit was reciprocal. “President Obama's message for the world without nuclear upon his visit to Hiroshima was engraved in the heart of the Japanese people,” he said. “This will be a visit to soothe the souls of the victims. We should never repeat the ravages of the war.”