Japanese PM’s Pearl Harbor visit won’t be for apology

TOKYO

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s upcoming visit to the Pearl Harbor naval base will not involve an apology for Japan’s surprise attack in 1941 that led to the United States joining World War II, according to the government's top spokesman Tuesday.

Abe is set to become the first Japanese leader to travel to the site of the deadly attack when he visits the base alongside U.S. President Barack Obama during a two-day trip to Hawaii starting Dec. 26.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday that the visit “is an opportunity to remember those who died in war, demonstrate a resolve that the horrors of war must never be repeated, and at the same time send a message about the reconciliation between Japan and the United States".

"The prime minister said everything there is to say about his feelings on the war in his statement in August last year to mark 70 years since the end of the war," he was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

When announcing his upcoming trip during a press conference Monday, Abe had described the move as being intended "to console the souls of the victims".

In May, Obama had become the first serving American leader to visit Japan’s Hiroshima, the site of a U.S. atomic bombing that brought World War II to an end.

Obama is set to leave office in January, when President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated.

Suga, however, insisted Tuesday that Abe’s Pearl Harbor visit is "not linked" to Obama's Hiroshima trip.

In August, Abe’s wife Akie Abe had visited a memorial site commemorating some of those killed in the 1941 attack, laying flowers at the USS Arizona Memorial on Oahu Island -- which marks the site where more than 1,100 American sailors and marines lost their lives.

The attack on Pearl Harbor left more than 2,400 U.S. troops and civilians dead.

Japan has never apologized for its surprise attack, nor has a leader visited the USS Arizona Memorial site.