Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Japanese PM Shinzo Abe: "Sincere and everlasting condolences"

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has visited the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, where he offered "sincere and everlasting condolences" to the victims of Japan's attack on the base 75 years ago.

"We must never repeat the horrors of war again, this is the solemn vow the people of Japan have taken," he said.

Mr Abe was accompanied by US President Barack Obama, making the visit the first by the leaders of both countries.

Japan devastated much of the base, killing more than 2,400 Americans.

'An alliance of hope'

Mr Abe paid tribute to the men who lost their lives in 1941 at the naval base, many of whom remain entombed in the wreckage of the USS Arizona, sunk by the Japanese that day, and vowed reconciliation and peace.

"To the souls of the US servicemen who lie aboard the USS Arizona, to the American people, and all people around the world, I pledge that unwavering vow," he said.

The Japanese prime minister went on to praise the US for its efforts to mend relations with Japan following the war between the two countries, which ended shortly after the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945.

And he called the renewed alliance between the countries an "alliance of hope".

Image copyright AFP Image caption The visit was the first to the site by the leaders of both countries

Image copyright AP Image caption The two leaders sprinkled flower petals in the wishing well at the Arizona memorial

Mr Obama also paid tribute to the dead, saying that he had laid a wreath on "waters that still weep".

"That morning the ranks on those men's shoulders reflected them less than the courage in their hearts," he said.

He said he welcomed Mr Abe "in the spirit of friendship, in the manner Japan has always welcomed me".

Mr Abe is the first Japanese leader to visit the memorial on the site of the Arizona, although several of his predecessors have been to Pearl Harbor in the past.

He and Mr Obama laid wreaths at the site and the two leaders prayed for the dead.

But, as expected, Mr Abe did not issue an apology for the attack.

Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor damaged all eight of the US battleships at the base and sank four of them, propelling the US into World War Two.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Some 2,300 US servicemen died in the attack on Pearl Harbor

Nearly half of those killed were on the Arizona and the remains of most are still entombed in the wreckage.

All eight battleships at the base were damaged and four were sunk. But the key US aircraft carriers were at sea at the time.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Japanese PM Shinzo Abe at the National Memorial of the Pacific on Monday

On Monday, Mr Abe visited the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and laid a wreath.

He stood for a moment of silence at the cemetery near central Honolulu, a memorial to those who died the the Pacific theatre of war.

He also held a summit meeting with Mr Obama in Hawaii, their last before Mr Obama steps down in January.

Pearl Harbor attack in numbers 7 December 1941 353 Japanese aircraft attacked the US Naval Base in Hawaii at 07:55 2,403 Americans were killed in the attack 19 US Navy ships, including eight battleships, were damaged or destroyed

328 US aircraft were damaged or destroyed in the attack, which lasted for one hour and 15 minutes Getty Images

Mr Abe's visit, three weeks after the 75th anniversary of the attack, follows a visit earlier this year to Hiroshima by Mr Obama.

He became the first serving US president to visit the Japanese city, where about 150,000 people are believed to have been killed in 1945 by a US atomic bomb.

Image copyright AFP

The first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor was Shigeru Yoshida who in 1951 stopped over in Hawaii both on the way to and from the signing of the peace treaty with the US in San Francisco.

Reaction: 'Symbolic reciprocity' or 'wrong reconciliation'?

Image copyright AFP

The visit has drawn positive comments in Japanese media. The daily Asahi Shimbun calls it "an act of symbolic reciprocity" coming six months after US President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima. It also notes: "Obama did not apologise at Hiroshima. Nor did Abe."

The leading Kyodo news agency observes that wartime survivors have mostly "welcomed Abe's condolences" but some have wondered why he did not apologise outright.

The Japan Times is mindful of criticism in China, noting Beijing's insistence that "Japan must first reconcile with parts of Asia victimised by its wartime aggression".

The Global Times in China reiterates the point in an editorial, saying that Mr Abe has picked "the wrong place and wrong direction if he is sincere in seeking reconciliation over historical issues". "He should have come to places like Nanjing, the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing, or the South Korean capital, Seoul. There are many venues there for him to commemorate," it adds.

Compiled by BBC Monitoring

His visit on the way home included a meeting with the commander of the US Pacific fleet, Admiral Arthur Radford. The office where the two men met offered a direct view of the site of the Japanese attack.

"I could almost see the wreck of Arizona" out of the window, Mr Radford later wrote in his memoir, referring to a battleship that sank in the attack.

He recalled the meeting as having been initially rather awkward until his dog walked over to the Japanese visitor to be patted, breaking the ice between the two former enemies.</s>PORTLAND (Sputnik) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered condolences to Americans for all those who died in Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in the US state of Hawaii on December 7, 1941.

"I offer sincere, everlasting condolences to all who lost their lives in Pearl Harbor," Abe said during a joint press conference with outgoing US President Barack Obama in Pearl Harbor.

Abe is the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor since the beginning of World War II in 1941.</s>PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Hawaii on Monday to recognize the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Abe landed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for the historic visit. He will be the first Japanese prime minister to visit the memorial that honors sailors and Marines killed in the 1941 attack.

Japan's former leader Shigeru Yoshida went to Pearl Harbor six years after the country's World War II surrender, but that was before the USS Arizona Memorial was built. Yoshida arrived at Pearl Harbor in 1951, shortly after requesting a courtesy visit to the office of Adm. Arthur W.R. Radford, commander of the U.S. Pacific fleet. The office overlooked Pearl Harbor, offering a direct view of the attack site.

The memorial will be closed to the public Tuesday when Abe visits the historic site, joined by U.S. President Barack Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii with his family.

The importance of the visit may be mostly symbolic for two countries that, in a remarkable transformation, have grown into close allies in the decades since they faced off in brutal conflict. At the same time, it's significant that it took more than 70 years for U.S.-Japanese relations to get to this point.

Abe won't apologize for Japan's attack when he visits, the government spokesman said earlier this month.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that "the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology."

The visit comes six months after Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima for victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of that city at the end of the same war.</s>Putting 75 years of resentment behind them, the leaders of the United States and Japan are coming together at Pearl Harbor for a historic pilgrimage to the site where a devastating surprise attack sent America marching into World War II.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit Tuesday with President Barack Obama is powerful proof that the former enemies have transcended the recriminatory impulses that weighed down relations after the war, Japan's government has said. Although Japanese leaders have visited Pearl Harbor before, Abe will be the first to visit the memorial constructed on the hallowed waters above the sunken USS Arizona.For Obama, it's likely the last time he will meet with a foreign leader as president, White House aides said. It's a bookend of sorts for the president, who nearly eight years ago invited Abe's predecessor to be the first leader he hosted at the White House.For Abe, it's an act of symbolic reciprocity, coming six months after Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima in Japan, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in hopes of ending the war it entered after Pearl Harbor."This visit, and the president's visit to Hiroshima earlier this year, would not have been possible eight years ago," said Daniel Kritenbrink, Obama's top Asia adviser in the White House. "That we are here today is the result of years of efforts at all levels of our government and societies, which has allowed us to jointly and directly deal with even the most sensitive aspects of our shared history."More than 2,300 Americans died on Dec. 7, 1941, when more than 300 Japanese fighter planes and bombers attacked. More than 1,000 others were wounded.In the ensuing years, the U.S. incarcerated roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps before dropping atomic bombs in 1945 that killed some 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.Abe will not apologize for Pearl Harbor, his government has said. Nor did Obama apologize at Hiroshima in May, a visit that he and Abe used to emphasize their elusive aspirations for a nuclear-free future.No apology needed, said 96-year-old Alfred Rodrigues, a U.S. Navy veteran who survived what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a "date which will live in infamy.""War is war," Rodrigues said as he looked at old photos of his military service. "They were doing what they were supposed to do, and we were doing what we were supposed to do."After a formal meeting in the morning, Obama and Abe planned to lay a wreath aboard the USS Arizona Memorial, which is accessible only by boat. Then they will go to nearby Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where both leaders will speak.Abe's visit is not without political risk given the Japanese people's long, emotional reckoning with their nation's aggression in the war. Though the history books have largely deemed Pearl Harbor a surprise attack, Japan's government insisted as recently as this month that it had intended to give the U.S. prior notice that it was declaring war and failed only because of "bureaucratic bungling.""There's this sense of guilt, if you like, among Japanese, this 'Pearl Harbor syndrome,' that we did something very unfair," said Tamaki Tsukada, a minister in the Embassy of Japan in Washington. "I think the prime minister's visit will in a sense absolve that kind of complex that Japanese people have."Since the war, the U.S. and Japan have built a powerful alliance that both sides say has grown during Obama's tenure, including strengthened military ties. Both Obama and Abe were driving forces behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping free trade deal now on hold due to staunch opposition by Congress and President-elect Donald Trump.Moving beyond the painful legacy of the war has been easier for Japan and the U.S. than for Japan and its other former foes, such as South Korea and China. As Abe arrived in Hawaii, Beijing dismissed as "wishful thinking" the notion that Japan could "liquidate the history of World War II" by visiting Pearl Harbor."Japan can never turn this page over without reconciliation from China and other victimized countries in Asia," said Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman.As Obama's presidency ends, there are questions about how U.S.-Japan ties will fare under Trump.During the campaign, Trump suggested that Japan and South Korea should obtain nuclear weapons so the U.S. would no longer be burdened with the costs of defending them, a disquieting notion in many Asian capitals. But after Trump's election, Abe became the first foreign leader to meet with him, sitting down in Trump Tower with the business mogul and Trump's daughter Ivanka.Though no Japanese prime minister has visited the USS Arizona Memorial, former Japanese leader Shigeru Yoshida visited Pearl Harbor in 1951, six years after Japan surrendered. He stopped there on his way home from signing the San Francisco peace treaty with the U.S. and others and paid a courtesy visit to the office of Adm. Arthur W.R. Radford.Other prime ministers have since visited Pearl Harbor and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as Punchbowl.</s>In this Dec. 7, 1941 photo, provided by the U.S. Navy, a small boat rescues a USS West Virginia crew member from the water after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Putting 75 years of resentment behind them, President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are coming together at Pearl Harbor for a historic pilgrimage to the site where a devastating surprise attack sent America marching into World War II. (U.S. Navy via AP)</s>(PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii)—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Hawaii on Monday to recognize the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Abe landed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for the historic visit. He will be the first Japanese prime minister to visit the memorial that honors sailors and Marines killed in the attack that spurred America to enter World War II.

Japan’s former leader Shigeru Yoshida went to Pearl Harbor six years after the country’s World War II surrender, but that was before the USS Arizona Memorial was built. Yoshida arrived at Pearl Harbor in 1951, shortly after requesting a courtesy visit to the office of Adm. Arthur W.R. Radford, commander of the U.S. Pacific fleet. The office overlooked Pearl Harbor, offering a direct view of the attack site.



The memorial will be closed to the public Tuesday when Abe visits the historic site, joined by U.S. President Barack Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii with his family.

The importance of the visit may be mostly symbolic for two countries that, in a remarkable transformation, have grown into close allies in the decades since they faced off in brutal conflict. At the same time, it’s significant that it took more than 70 years for U.S.-Japanese relations to get to this point.

Abe won’t apologize for Japan’s attack when he visits, the government spokesman said earlier this month.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that “the purpose of the upcoming visit is to pay respects for the war dead and not to offer an apology.”

The visit comes six months after Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima for victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of that city at the end of the same war.

On Monday, Abe visited the Ehime Maru Memorial near downtown Honolulu. Nine boys and men died when a U.S. Navy submarine collided with their Japanese fishing vessel off Oahu on Feb. 9. 2001. Hawaii Gov. David Ige and Caroline Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to Japan, were among those who joined Abe for the solemn memorial visit.</s>PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — In a historic pilgrimage, the leaders of Japan and the United States took to the hallowed waters of Pearl Harbor on Tuesday to prove that even the bitterest enemies can become allies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not apologize, but conceded Japan “must never repeat the horrors of war again.”

Seventy-five years after Japan’s surprise attack sent America marching into World War II, Abe and President Barack Obama peered down at the rusting wreckage of the USS Arizona, clearly visible in the tranquil, teal water. More than 1,000 U.S. war dead remain entombed in the submerged ship, and in a show of respect, Obama and Abe dropped purple petals into the water and stood in silence.



“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 later at nearby Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

That was the closest Abe would get to an apology for the attack. And it was enough for Obama, who also declined to apologize seven months ago when he became America’s first sitting president to visit Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in a bid to end the war.

It was enough, too, for Alfred Rodrigues, a U.S. Navy veteran who survived the attack. The 96-year-old said he had no hard feelings and added, “War is war.”

“They were doing what they were supposed to do, and we were doing what we were supposed to do,” Rodrigues said before the visit.

Abe, who became Japan’s first leader to visit Pearl Harbor with a U.S. president, said the visit “brought utter silence to me.” His remarks capped a day that was carefully choreographed by the U.S. and Japan to show a strong and growing alliance between former foes.

They started with a formal meeting at another nearby military base, in what the White House said was likely Obama’s last meeting with a foreign leader before leaving office in January. It was a bookend of sorts for the president, who nearly eight years ago invited Abe’s predecessor to be the first leader he hosted at the White House.

Obama, speaking after he and Abe laid green-and-peach wreaths at the memorial, called the harbor a sacred place and said that “even the deepest wounds of war can give way to friendship and lasting peace.” It’s a notion Obama tried throughout his presidency to put into practice, as he reached out to former adversaries Iran, Myanmar and Cuba.

“As we lay a wreath or toss flowers into waters that still weep, we think of the more than 2,400 American patriots, fathers and husbands, wives and daughters, manning heaven’s rails for all eternity,” Obama said.

Then the two leaders greeted survivors in the crowd. They shook hands and hugged some of the men who fought in the Dec. 7, 1941, battle that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a “date which will live in infamy.”

Japanese leaders have visited Pearl Harbor before, but Abe was the first to go to the memorial above the sunken USS Arizona, where a marbled wall lists the names of U.S. troops killed in the Japanese attack.

For Abe, it was an act of symbolic reciprocity, coming seven months after Obama and Abe visited Hiroshima together and renewed their calls for a nuclear-free future. Still, both governments maintain that the visits were separate and not contingent upon one another.

The visit was not without political risk for Abe, given the Japanese people’s long, emotional reckoning with their nation’s aggression in the war. Though the history books have largely deemed Pearl Harbor a surprise attack, Japan’s government still insists it had intended to give prior notice that it was declaring war and failed only because of “bureaucratic bungling.”

“There’s this sense of guilt, if you like, among Japanese, this ‘Pearl Harbor syndrome,’ that we did something very unfair,” said Tamaki Tsukada, a minister in the Embassy of Japan in Washington. He said he believes Abe’s visit would “absolve that kind of complex that Japanese people have.”

In the years after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. incarcerated roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps before dropping atomic bombs in 1945 that killed some 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

Since the war, the U.S. and Japan have built a powerful alliance that both sides say has grown during Obama’s tenure, including strengthened military ties. Yet there are questions about whether the relationship will degenerate under President-elect Donald Trump, a possibility neither Obama nor Abe addressed.

Associated Press writers Brian Skoloff in Kailua, Hawaii, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.</s>PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — Under a warm Oahu sun, with the tranquil, teal waters of Pearl Harbor behind them, former enemies came together Tuesday to acknowledge the tremendous loss caused by the Japanese attack on U.S. military installations in Hawaii 75 years ago.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Barack Obama made a historic pilgrimage to the site where the devastating surprise attack sent America marching into World War II.

“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.

He did not apologize for the attack but said “we must never repeat the horrors of war again.”

Japanese leaders have visited Pearl Harbor before, but Abe was the first to go to the memorial constructed on the hallowed waters above the sunken USS Arizona.

There, he and Obama placed a pair of green-and-peach wreaths made of lilies and tossed purple flower petals into the water. The rusting wreckage of the ship where more than 1,000 American service members are entombed can be seen just under the water’s surface.

Obama and Abe closed their eyes and stood silently for a few moments.

Afterward, they spoke at nearby Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where Obama called the harbor a sacred place and said that “even the deepest wounds of war can give way to friendship and lasting peace.”

“As we lay a wreath or toss flowers into waters that still weep, we think of the more than 2,400 American patriots, fathers and husbands, wives and daughters, manning heaven’s rails for all eternity,” Obama said.

In likely the last time he will meet with a foreign leader as president, Obama said the two countries are bound by shared interests and common values and their alliance is “the cornerstone of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific and a force for progress around the globe.”

The two leaders greeted survivors in the crowd, shaking hands and hugging some of the men who fought in the Dec. 7, 1941, battle.

The visit is powerful proof that the former enemies have transcended the recriminatory impulses that weighed down relations after the war, Japan’s government has said.

It’s a bookend of sorts for the president, who nearly eight years ago invited Abe’s predecessor to be the first leader he hosted at the White House.

For Abe, it’s an act of symbolic reciprocity, coming six months after Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima in Japan, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in hopes of ending the war it entered after Pearl Harbor.

“This visit, and the president’s visit to Hiroshima earlier this year, would not have been possible eight years ago,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, Obama’s top Asia adviser in the White House. “That we are here today is the result of years of efforts at all levels of our government and societies, which has allowed us to jointly and directly deal with even the most sensitive aspects of our shared history.”

In the years after Japan’s attack, the U.S. incarcerated roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps before dropping atomic bombs in 1945 that killed some 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

Obama did not apologize at Hiroshima in May, a visit that he and Abe used to emphasize their elusive aspirations for a nuclear-free future. Nor did Abe on Tuesday.

No apology needed, said 96-year-old Alfred Rodrigues, a U.S. Navy veteran who survived what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a “date which will live in infamy.”

“War is war,” Rodrigues said as he looked at old photos of his military service. “They were doing what they were supposed to do, and we were doing what we were supposed to do.”

Abe’s visit is not without political risk given the Japanese people’s long, emotional reckoning with their nation’s aggression in the war. Though the history books have largely deemed Pearl Harbor a surprise attack, Japan’s government insisted as recently as this month that it had intended to give the U.S. prior notice that it was declaring war and failed only because of “bureaucratic bungling.”

“There’s this sense of guilt, if you like, among Japanese, this `Pearl Harbor syndrome,’ that we did something very unfair,” said Tamaki Tsukada, a minister in the Embassy of Japan in Washington. “I think the prime minister’s visit will in a sense absolve that kind of complex that Japanese people have.”

Since the war, the U.S. and Japan have built a powerful alliance that both sides say has grown during Obama’s tenure, including strengthened military ties. Both Obama and Abe were driving forces behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping free trade deal now on hold due to staunch opposition by Congress and President-elect Donald Trump.

Moving beyond the painful legacy of the war has been easier for Japan and the U.S. than for Japan and its other former foes, such as South Korea and China. As Abe arrived in Hawaii, Beijing dismissed as “wishful thinking” the notion that Japan could “liquidate the history of World War II” by visiting Pearl Harbor.

“Japan can never turn this page over without reconciliation from China and other victimized countries in Asia,” said Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — The leaders of Japan and the United States sought to remind the world that even the most bitter enemies can become allies, during a historic pilgrimage to the hallowed waters of Pearl Harbor.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not apologize, but conceded Japan "must never repeat the horrors of war again."

Seventy-five years after Japan's surprise attack, Abe and President Barack Obama peered down Tuesday at the rusting wreckage of the USS Arizona, clearly visible in the tranquil, teal water. In a show of respect for the war dead, Obama and Abe dropped purple petals into the water and stood in silence.

More than 1,000 U.S. war dead remain entombed in the submerged ship, which Japan struck as part of the devastating attack that killed more than 2,300 Americans and sent America marching into World War II.

"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 later at nearby Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

That was the closest Abe would get to an apology for the attack. And it was enough for Obama, who also declined to apologize seven months ago when he became America's first sitting president to visit Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in a bid to end the war.

It was enough, too, for Alfred Rodrigues, a U.S. Navy veteran who survived the attack. The 96-year-old said he had no hard feelings and added, "War is war."

"They were doing what they were supposed to do, and we were doing what we were supposed to do," Rodrigues said before the visit.

In the years after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. incarcerated roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps before dropping atomic bombs in 1945 that killed some 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

Since the war, the U.S. and Japan have built a powerful alliance that both sides say has grown during Obama's tenure, including strengthened military ties. Yet there are questions about whether the relationship will fray under President-elect Donald Trump, a possibility neither Obama nor Abe addressed.

Abe, who became Japan's first leader to visit Pearl Harbor with a U.S. president, said the visit "brought utter silence to me." His remarks capped a day that was carefully choreographed by the U.S. and Japan to show a strong and growing alliance between former foes.

Japanese officials said that in their talks, Abe and Obama agreed to closely monitor the movements of China's first and sole aircraft carrier, which has sailed into the western Pacific for the first time.

The Japanese officials also said the two leaders affirmed that movements by the Chinese carrier Liaoning "warrant close attention from mid-term and long-term perspectives."

White House officials who accompanied Obama to Hawaii did not comment on the announcement from the Japanese, and in an unusual move, they didn't release a written description of the meeting. But in Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. recognizes lawful uses of the sea, and the same rights apply to the U.S., China and other nations.

He said, "as we often make the case with our own naval vessels sailing ... in those same waters, it's freedom of navigation."

Obama and Abe started Tuesday's activities here with a formal meeting at a another nearby military base, in what the White House said was likely Obama's last meeting with a foreign leader before leaving office in January. It was a bookend of sorts for the president, who nearly eight years ago invited Abe's predecessor to be the first leader he hosted at the White House.

Speaking after he and Abe laid green-and-peach wreaths at the memorial, Obama called Pearl Harbor a sacred place and said that "even the deepest wounds of war can give way to friendship and lasting peace." It's a notion Obama tried throughout his presidency to put into practice, as he reached out to former adversaries Iran, Myanmar and Cuba.

Japanese leaders have visited Pearl Harbor before, but Abe was the first to go to the memorial above the sunken USS Arizona, where a marbled wall lists the names of U.S. troops killed in the Japanese attack.

"There's this sense of guilt, if you like, among Japanese, this 'Pearl Harbor syndrome,' that we did something very unfair," said Tamaki Tsukada, a minister in the Embassy of Japan in Washington. He said he believes Abe's visit would "absolve that kind of complex that Japanese people have."

Associated Press writers Brian Skoloff in Kailua, Hawaii, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.</s>Under a warm Oahu sun, with the tranquil teal waters of Pearl Harbor behind them, former enemies came together to acknowledge the tremendous loss from the Japanese attack on U.S. military installations in Hawaii 75 years ago.

“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,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday.

Putting 75 years of resentment behind them, Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama made a historic pilgrimage to the site where the devastating surprise attack sent America marching into the Second World War.

After a formal meeting, they placed a pair of green-and-peach wreaths made of lilies aboard the USS Arizona Memorial and tossed purple flower petals into the water.

The rusting wreckage of the sunken ship where more than 1,000 American service members are entombed can be seen just under the water’s surface.

Obama and Abe closed their eyes and stood silently for a few moments before concluding their visit to the memorial and heading to nearby Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, where both leaders spoke.

The visit is powerful proof that the former enemies have transcended the recriminatory impulses that weighed down relations after the war, Japan’s government has said. Although Japanese leaders have visited Pearl Harbor before, Abe will be the first to visit the memorial constructed on the hallowed waters above the sunken USS Arizona.

For Obama, it’s likely the last time he will meet with a foreign leader as president, White House aides said. It’s a bookend of sorts for the president, who nearly eight years ago invited Abe’s predecessor to be the first leader he hosted at the White House.

For Abe, it’s an act of symbolic reciprocity, coming six months after Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima in Japan, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in hopes of ending the war it entered after Pearl Harbor.

“This visit, and the president’s visit to Hiroshima earlier this year, would not have been possible eight years ago,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, Obama’s top Asia adviser in the White House. “That we are here today is the result of years of efforts at all levels of our government and societies, which has allowed us to jointly and directly deal with even the most sensitive aspects of our shared history.”

More than 2,300 Americans died on Dec. 7, 1941, when more than 300 Japanese fighter planes and bombers attacked. More than 1,000 others were wounded.

In the ensuing years, the U.S. incarcerated roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps before dropping atomic bombs in 1945 that killed some 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

Abe did not apologize for Pearl Harbor. Nor did Obama apologize at Hiroshima in May, a visit that he and Abe used to emphasize their elusive aspirations for a nuclear-free future.

No apology needed, said 96-year-old Alfred Rodrigues, a U.S. Navy veteran who survived what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a “date which will live in infamy.”

“War is war,” Rodrigues said as he looked at old photos of his military service. “They were doing what they were supposed to do, and we were doing what we were supposed to do.”

Abe’s visit is not without political risk given the Japanese people’s long, emotional reckoning with their nation’s aggression in the war. Though the history books have largely deemed Pearl Harbor a surprise attack, Japan’s government insisted as recently as this month that it had intended to give the U.S. prior notice that it was declaring war and failed only because of “bureaucratic bungling.”

“There’s this sense of guilt, if you like, among Japanese, this `Pearl Harbor syndrome,’ that we did something very unfair,” said Tamaki Tsukada, a minister in the Embassy of Japan in Washington. “I think the prime minister’s visit will, in a sense, absolve that kind of complex that Japanese people have.”

Since the war, the U.S. and Japan have built a powerful alliance that both sides say has grown during Obama’s tenure, including strengthened military ties. Both Obama and Abe were driving forces behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping free-trade deal now on hold due to staunch opposition by the U.S. Congress and president-elect Donald Trump.

Moving beyond the painful legacy of the war has been easier for Japan and the U.S. than for Japan and its other former foes, such as South Korea and China. As Abe arrived in Hawaii, Beijing dismissed as “wishful thinking” the notion that Japan could “liquidate the history of World War II” by visiting Pearl Harbor.

“Japan can never turn this page over without reconciliation from China and other victimized countries in Asia,” said Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe makes a landmark visit to Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, offering "sincere and everlasting condolences" to the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese empire on December 7, 1941.