Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's planned visit to Pearl Harbor late this month — the first by an incumbent leader of Japan — should serve to confirm the reconciliation between World War II enemies that have become close allies over the postwar decades. In paying tribute at the site of the December 1941 Japanese attack that drew the United States into World War II, Abe will be reciprocating Barack Obama's historic pilgrimage in May to Hiroshima — the first by a sitting American president to the city devastated by the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing. The Dec. 26-27 trip to Hawaii, where Abe plans to hold his last summit with Obama, may also serve to highlight the crucial importance of the bilateral relationship for the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose views toward the alliance remain unclear.
But if such a symbolic gesture of reconciliation is to be valued between the two allies today, the Abe administration should also take more proactive steps to achieve full reconciliation with Japan's East Asian neighbors that suffered from this nation's wartime aggression and colonial rule — which has apparently not been achieved more than 70 years after the war.
In his surprise announcement Monday, the prime minister said the visit will be aimed at praying for victims of the war on both sides of the Pacific and demonstrating Japan's resolve never to repeat the tragedy of war. He said his tribute at the Pearl Harbor memorial side by side with Obama will send a message to the world of the value of reconciliation between Japan and the U.S. and the significance of their closer alliance toward the future.