Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images(HONOLULU) — For the first time since Japan’s historic attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a Japanese leader will visit the U.S. naval base.
President Obama will welcome Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Hawaii, and together they will visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu.
More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor.
The visit, announced earlier this month, follows Obama’s traveling earlier this year to Hiroshima, the Japanese city where the U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb in 1945 during the final stage of World War II.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy called Tuesday’s visit “an historic moment for both our countries,” and an opportunity to “reflect on the alliance and reconciliation.”
“I think, for Americans to see a prime minister come here, it really shows the depth and strength of our alliance,” Kennedy told ABC News.
Kennedy said the meeting also carries personal significance for her, being the daughter of John F. Kennedy, who fought in World War II before beginning his career as a politician.
“My father fought in the Pacific, so I think for me, personally, I can’t imagine an event that would be more historic and I feel so privileged,” she said.
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