Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week will be the first Japanese leader to visit the USS Arizona Memorial and pay tribute to the victims of Pearl Harbor, a gesture he hopes will help heal the wounds from the attack 75 years ago and strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance.
Whether Abe's speech in Honolulu will be a political success remains to be seen. But the visit is unlikely to end the historical debate over the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, let alone ease the die-hard conspiracy theories that continue to stir interest on both sides of the Pacific.
Key among them is the belief that then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew of Japan's plans to attack, because the U.S. had cracked Japan's naval codes yet did nothing to prevent it or prepare for it.