Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Pearl Harbor on Tuesday, in which he offered no apology for Japan's sneak attack on Americans in World War II, serves no more than a political show that aims to strengthen Japanese-U.S. alliance.
Calling himself "entire speechless" when standing at the Pearl Harbor memorial constructed on the sunken USS Arizona, Abe acknowledged that the United States and Japan fought a fierce war "that will go down in the annuls of human history."
"Each and every one of those servicemen had a mother and a father anxious about his safety. Many had wives and girlfriends they loved. And many must have had children they would have loved to watch grow up. All of that was brought to an end," said Abe.
The Japanese government billed Abe's visit as a tour of reconciliation.
However, except from offering his "sincere and everlasting condolences" to the souls of the Americans killed by troops of the Japanese imperial empire, no apology from Abe was issued.
As many as 2,403 Americans were killed, about 20 U.S. vessels were sunk or damaged and over 300 U.S. aircraft were damaged or destroyed when more than 350 Japanese warplanes launched stealth attacks to Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.
"I think he should apologize. It was a raid that they bombed us and they should apologize. They already surrendered but they should apologize further," said Grace Sandoval, a teenager visiting Washington, D.C. from the U.S. State of Connecticut.
The attack came as a shock to the Americans and directly led to U.S. entry into World War II.
Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
For years, Abe and his cohorts had refused to reckon with Japanese aggression during World War II and the stealthy attack at Pearl Harbor had for long been described as an inevitable incident caused by U.S.-led oil embargo that wreaked havoc on the Japanese imperial empire.
By whitewashing the Japanese wartime history and highlighting the historic devastation caused by U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, right-wing Japanese politicians, including Abe, helped to implant a distorted historical narrative in some Japanese, who till now still believe that the Imperial Japan was the victim, rather than the initiator of the war.
"It's incredibly important (to know about the war) because I strongly feel that if we don't know history then we are at risk of repeating the dangers of what happened in history," said Cruick Shank, a visitor from U.S. State of Massachusetts.
Abe's decision to visit Pearl Harbor came about six months after Obama visited Hiroshima.
Apart from reciprocating Obama's visit to Hiroshima, Abe's trip to Pearl Harbor was believed to be the latest step by the Japanese government to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance before Trump's inauguration next January.
During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly ripped U.S. defense of Japan as a one-sided and expensive deal.
Japan's Kyodo News quoted a senior Japanese official as saying that since the election of Trump, Japan had been forced to think how best to show Trump that Japan was a trustworthy partner.
