Japanese leader Abe won’t apologize at Pearl Harbor
ASSOCIATED PRESS / MAY 27
U.S. President Barack Obama shook hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan. Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the site of the world’s first atomic bomb attack.
TOKYO >> Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won’t apologize for Japan’s attack when he visits the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor later this month, the government spokesman said Tuesday.
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.”
• USS Arizona survivor heads to Pearl Harbor 75 years later
Abe announced late Monday that he would have a summit meeting with President Barack Obama in Hawaii and visit Pearl Harbor. He will be the first Japanese leader to go to the site of the Japanese attack that propelled the United States into World War II.
The unexpected announcement came two days before the 75th anniversary of the attack and 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.
“We must never repeat the tragedy of the war,” Abe said. “I would like to send this commitment. At the same time, I would like to send a message of reconciliation between Japan and the U.S.”
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
The White House confirmed that Obama and Abe would visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 27. It said “the two leaders’ visit will showcase the power of reconciliation that has turned former adversaries into the closest of allies, united by common interests and shared values.”
Defense Secretary Ash Carter, on an official trip to Japan, said he would tell Abe at a meeting later Tuesday how pleased Obama and the U.S. are.
11 responses to “Japanese leader Abe won’t apologize at Pearl Harbor”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This scumbag won’t even recognize the Jap troops taking in “comfort women” or sex slaves, mostly from Korea, nor does he apologize to the Rape at Nanking or the atrocities committed when they occupied Korea from 1910-1945 and, yet, that wimp of a President is inviting this individual to come to Pearl Harbor and fake his sentiments over the dead sailors still entombed in the ARIZONA & WEST VIRGINIA battleships….what a farce…..
The war’s over. His country lost big time. Good luck finding your way back in time where your indignation and racism were, if not justified, at least timely.
Geez, Today’s American’s stole America from the Native Americans. They even stole Hawaii! When will the lands be returned? “smh”
Isn’t that the same as Kamehameha stealing Maui and Kauai? Or is it OK because he was the same race?
Bachi – The untold stories of Japanese Pilots crash landing their planes and taking up refuge in AJA homes. My Japanese ancestors once told me, if we cannot conquer Hawaii, then we must overwhelm them with our people. Push for democracy. Be in charge of their government and work place. If we have done this, then although they have won the battle, we have won the Japanese people (plural) have won the war.
Japanese ancestors. Right. So, this is where you hang out after your failed run for Congress?
you can’t be Christian as the supposedly forgive. Are you of the Muslim/Islamic Faith? An Eye for an Eye kind of thinking? Women 2nd Class humans? Yikes! “smh” it’s still going on in the MidEast, Jesus couldn’t teach them 2000+ years ago or maybe he didn’t exist and it’s all conjured up? I dunno know maybe you have no belief but still if you think the Japanese didn’t already surrender then what about today’s MidEasterners fighting in da MidEast? omg!
and I still haven’t heard Barry apologizing for all the LIES of ACA BarryCare. lol
People reacting to this story need to sit back and think: even if Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were to stand at the Arizona Memorial and deliver what both English and Japanese speakers would take as an unequivocol apology, then what difference can it possibly make to anyone believing themselves to be a victim of Japan’s wartime aggression? And if you are taking up the cause of a loved one or countryman who suffered during the war, than just what exactly would you expect an apology to accomplish? Nothing on earth can turn the clock back and undo what was done. If you hold that forgivess is somehow contingent upon receiving a sincere apology, then what of all the people on both sides of World War II that long ago made their peace with their former enemies and moved on? Are all these people deluded or foolish?
If you are ultimately seeking a reason to forgive someone, a people or some country, race, or nation, then it might be better to think of the state of forgiveness as a quality and strength that comes from within, and not something you derive from the utterance of someone else’s well-crafted words.
To take things much closer to home and to some, to a much more personal level, we all understand that the American Civil War (aka the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression) formally ended in 1865. No one who fought in or had any decision making role in that bloody conflict is left alive to offer or receive an apology. Does that mean relations between black and white, or northerners and southerners cannot be better than what it now is? If you firmly maintain it takes some sort of definitive apology from a former enemy in order for people to achieve some kind of personal vindication and peace, then I’m afraid all of us are condemned to an extremely long wait.
Too much logic there for this forum.
I don’t think Obama apologized for our dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because I would not unless they apologize for the attack on Pearl Harbor.