The Japanese Prime Minister Was the First to Visit Pearl Harbor in 65 Years

Shinzo Abe and Barack Obama will head to the historic site in an effort to improve relations between the U.S. and Japan.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe places a wreath at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 26, 2016.Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Hawaii on December 26 ahead of a symbolic meeting with President Barack Obama at the site of the Pearl Harbor attack. Abe's visit comes 75 years after Japan's December 1941 attack on the base of the US Pacific fleet, drawing the US into World War II. / AFP / JAPAN POOL VIA JIJI PRESS / STR / Japan OUT (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)AFP/Getty Images

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe becomes the fourth leader from the nation and the first sitting prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor, almost 65 years after the previous visit.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a U.S. military base near Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack killed over 2,400 American soldiers and it also damaged large numbers of military vessels and equipment. The event led to U.S. entry into World War II.

While the Japanese prime minister will honor the dead during his visit to the historic site, his staff is quick to point out that he'll not be apologizing for the Japanese actions that were taken.

Abe's visit comes after President Obama visited Hiroshima, one of the two cities that the U.S. bombed with nuclear weapons in World War II, last May, becoming the first sitting president to visit the site where 90,000 perished. The move was also not an effort to apologize for the bombing, but to mourn the dead and let the event serve as a reminder to be more humane to one another in the future.

However, a desire to remember the past isn't the only reason for the two nations to forge a stronger relationship; the current political climate is making the need for unity more important than ever.

In addition to working on U.S.-Japanese diplomacy, the Pearl Harbor visit comes on the heels of much uncertainty as to what Donald Trump's presidency will do for those relations. While Trump did take a meeting with Abe after his win, he also publicly supported an arms race and expanded nuclear programs. Abe has made it clear that he believes that we should "never repeat the ravages of war." According to a White House statement reported by CNN, "The two leaders' visit will showcase the power of reconciliation that has turned former adversaries into the closest of allies."

Related: Obama Just Visited the City Where the U.S. Dropped an Atomic Bomb

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