Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday visited several memorials in Hawaii, ahead of a landmark visit to Pearl Harbor on Tuesday with US President Barack Obama.<br /><br /> Abe made no public remarks and stood in silence before a wreath of flowers at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a memorial to people who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.<br /><br /> #Japan’s PM #ShinzoAbe arrives in #Hawaii ahead of historic #PearlHarbor visit pic.twitter.com/uc7GYQKqv7— Siddhant Sibbal (@sidhant) December 27, 2016<br /><br /> His trip comes 75 years after Japan’s surprise attack on the naval base that killed 2,300 US servicemen and propelled the US into World War Two.<br /><br /> The visit is meant to highlight the decades of reconciliation and now strong alliance between the two countries. Abe said he wants to send a message to the world that Japan will never repeat the atrocities of past wars.<br /><br /> “The alliance between Japan and the United States is one with hope in dealing with various problems in the world,” Abe said in a speech to the Japanese business lobby Keidanren.<br /><br /> “I hope this visit will be a historical one with leaders of Japan and the United States jointly visiting Pearl Harbor in a show of reconciliation,” he said.<br /><br /> His trip follows Obama’s visit last May to the city of Hiroshima, where the US dropped the world’s first nuclear bomb in 1945.<br />
