--- title: Shinzo Abe, Barack Obama in Pearl Harbor: What Came Before description: What to know about the history behind the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to Hawaii's USS Arizona Memorial with President Obama canonical: https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-26T14:00:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:19:33.458Z article:section: History og:title: The History Behind Shinzo Abe's Visit to Pearl Harbor og:description: What to know about the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to Hawaii's USS Arizona Memorial og:url: https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81a5aa01646c2bce/6988b32b0a4a2285319cc5e8/shinzo.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Shinzo Abe og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The History Behind Shinzo Abe's Visit to Pearl Harbor twitter:description: What to know about the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to Hawaii's USS Arizona Memorial twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81a5aa01646c2bce/6988b32b0a4a2285319cc5e8/shinzo.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The History Behind Shinzo Abe's Visit to Pearl Harbor ## Video: President Obama and Japanese PM Make Historic Visit To Pearl Harbor [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama and Japanese PM Make Historic Visit To Pearl Harbor](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/o8cBVKy6.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2016-12-27. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have laid wreaths aboard the USS Arizona Memorial to honor Americans who died in the Pearl Harbor attacks._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 26, 2016 2:00 PM UTC  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a press conference in Buenos Aires on Nov. 21, 2016. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a press conference in Buenos Aires on Nov. 21, 2016.Eitan Abramovich—AFP/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 26, 2016 2:00 PM UTC When President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meet in Honolulu Tuesday and pay a visit to the USS _Arizona_ Memorial at [Pearl Harbor](http://time.com/4583817/remembering-pearl-harbor-virtual-reality/), the trip will mark [one of the first visits](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/world/asia/shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor-visit-shigeru-yoshida.html?%5Fr=0) by a sitting Japanese leader to the location famous as the site of the [1941 Japanese attack](http://time.com/4578865/meet-pearl-harbor-veteran-virtual-reality/) that ultimately [provoked](http://time.com/4567884/colorized-photos-pearl-harbor/) the U.S. to enter World War II. “The two leaders’ visit will showcase the power of reconciliation that has turned former adversaries into the closest of allies,” the White House [said](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/05/statement-press-secretary-visit-hawaii-prime-minister-abe-japan) in a statement. Just [as was the case when Obama visited Hiroshima earlier in the year](http://time.com/4324538/barack-obama-atomic-bombings-hiroshima-nagasaki/)—as the first sitting U.S. President to go to the site of the atomic bombing—the visit by Abe comes after many years of debate in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere about how the two nations should come to terms with the legacy of World War II. In 1991, when the world marked the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, TIME examined the way Japan talked—or failed to talk—about the attack and the rest of World War II, in [an article by Barry Hillenbrand and James Walsh](http://time.com/vault/issue/1991-12-02/page/82/). “Americans remember Dec. 7 as a day of infamy. Japanese, when they think of Dec. 8 at all, tend to dismiss the date as _mizu ni nagasu_: water under the bridge,” the article noted. Many people found that stance problematic: --- > “” --- One reason for that situation, suggested the president of Tokyo Women’s University at the time, was that a century of movement toward modernization in Japan had discouraged any culture of reflecting on the past. As an example of that stance, Walsh and Hillenbrand cite the response of an unnamed official, on the subject of Pearl Harbor’s anniversary: “It’s a historical fact. We can’t deny it, but let’s move on.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) At the time, the relationship between the U.S. and Japan was a tense one, for very different reasons than had been the case a half-century before. Though surveys showed that a majority of Japanese people admired the U.S., much ink was spilled over the idea that a rising tide of anti-Americanism was about to sweep the nation. Meanwhile, American politicians and consumers alike fretted over [competition with the growing Japanese economy](http://time.com/vault/issue/1987-04-13/page/1/) and disagreement over Japan’s response to American military efforts in the Persian Gulf. But, when it came to acknowledging the past, things were already beginning to change: that year, while marking the anniversary of the atomic bombing of his city, Hiroshima’s mayor Takashi Hiraoka had publicly [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1991-08-19/page/51/) the “horror” that began with Pearl Harbor. Another 25 years have passed since then, and it’s clear that, in the U.S. and in Japan alike, time has done much to help nations and [individuals](http://time.com/4589051/pearl-harbor-children/) see the events of World War II with a new perspective. “We must never repeat the horror of war,” Abe [said](http://time.com/4590218/shinzo-abe-japan-pearl-harbor-visit/) at the time that the Pearl Harbor visit was announced. “I want to express that determination as we look to the future, and at the same time send a message about the value of U.S.-Japanese reconciliation.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/"},"headline":"The History Behind Shinzo Abe's Visit to Pearl Harbor","datePublished":"2016-12-26T14:00:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:19:33.458Z","description":"What to know about the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to Hawaii's USS Arizona Memorial","url":"https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/","keywords":["politics","conflict"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81a5aa01646c2bce/6988b32b0a4a2285319cc5e8/shinzo.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81a5aa01646c2bce/6988b32b0a4a2285319cc5e8/shinzo.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Shinzo Abe","caption":"ARGENTINA-JAPAN-ABE","creditText":"Eitan Abramovich—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/","name":"The History Behind Shinzo Abe's Visit to Pearl Harbor"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Obama and Japanese PM Make Historic Visit To Pearl Harbor","description":"President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have laid wreaths aboard the USS Arizona Memorial to honor Americans who died in the Pearl Harbor attacks.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/o8cBVKy6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-12-27T23:26:08.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/o8cBVKy6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4603579/history-shinzo-abe-pearl-harbor/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```