Seventy-five years after Pearl Harbor, President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Tuesday at the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii — the site of the 1941 bombing — to pay their respects to those who lost their lives in the attack.
“Together, with President Obama, I paid a visit to that memorial, the resting place for many souls,” Abe said, during remarks made in front of the memorial, a day after he made stops other Honolulu sites, including the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. “It’s a place which brought utter silence to me.”
On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, ultimately pulling the U.S. into World War II.
“We must never repeat the horrors of war again. This is the solemn vow we, the people of Japan, have taken,” Abe said, and spoke of the power of reconciliation. “[The U.S. and Japan] are allies that will tackle together to an even greater degree than ever before the many challenges covering the globe. Ours is an alliance of hope that will lead us to the future.”
Seven months ago, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in Hiroshima, the site of the U.S. atomic bombing in 1945. With his visit this week, Abe became the first Japanese prime minister to pray for the dead alongside an American president at Pearl Harbor.
“Our presence here today — the connections not just between our governments, but between our people, the presence of Prime Minister Abe here today — remind us of what is possible between nations and between peoples,” Obama said. “Wars can end. The most bitter adversaries can become the strongest of allies. The fruits of peace always outweigh the plunder of war. This is the enduring truth of this hallowed harbor.”
