Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama made a symbolic visit to Pearl Harbour on Tuesday, to commemorate the 2,403 people who died in the 7 December 1941 attack on the harbour.
Abe, the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit Pearl Harbour in 65 years, offered his “sincere and everlasting condolences” and vowed that Japan would remain on a peaceful path.
The two leaders commemorated the dead at the USS Arizona Memorial, which is built over the remains of the sunken battleship.
The visit, which comes a few weeks before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, was meant to highlight the strength of the US-Japan alliance amid concerns that Trump could forge a more complicated relationship with Tokyo.
“As the Prime Minister of Japan, I offer my sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives here, as well as to the spirits of all the brave men and women whose lives were taken by a war that commenced in this very place,” Abe said.
(With inputs from Reuters and NBC News.)
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