Japan and the United States will hold on Dec. 8 the first joint ceremony to remember those killed in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Consulate General in Honolulu has said.
The joint ceremony will be held the day after the U.S. Navy and the U.S. National Park Service hold a traditional memorial ceremony — attended by an estimated 4,000 people — to mark the 75th anniversary of the attack.
The subsequent Japan-U.S. joint ceremony, co-organized by the Japanese government and the U.S. Navy, is expected to be attended by about 80 people, the consulate general said Monday.
The joint ceremony will be held "to confirm the development of mutual reconciliation and understanding between Japan and the United States and renew our resolve to boost friendship as well as remember war victims on both sides," Consul General Yuri Higashi said.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, prompting Washington to declare war on Japan. Some 2,400 Americans, including more than 1,100 crew members on the sunken battleship USS Arizona, were killed in the attack.