TOKYO — As recently as five years ago, a Japanese prime minister was in Hawaii for an economic summit meeting but pointedly stayed away from Pearl Harbor.
In the coming week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will fly to Hawaii for the express purpose of visiting the site of the surprise attack on a US naval base 75 years ago that killed 2,400 Americans and drew the country into World War II.
It is a sign of how far public opinion in Japan has moved that Abe can make the trip to the memorial, accompanied by President Obama, to offer condolences to the victims.
For decades, Japan has struggled to reckon with its wartime history, and the Pearl Harbor attack has been cast as a tragic but inevitable response to a US-led oil embargo that would have devastated the Japanese empire.
Because of domestic political opposition, it has been all but impossible for Japanese leaders to visit Pearl Harbor until now. In 1994, when Emperor Akihito tried to visit the memorial — atop the remains of the USS Arizona, the US battleship on which the worst losses occurred — protests from Japan’s nationalist right wing prompted him to alter his plans.
But after Abe, who is a conservative politician with strong ties to nationalist groups, announced his plans this month, the reception in Japan was largely positive.
Even the far-right Sankei newspaper — though grumbling that Abe should first revisit Yasukuni, a shrine in Tokyo where war criminals are buried — described Abe’s trip to Hawaii as “an opportunity to refresh a commitment to deepen the US-Japan friendship and contribute peace to the world through a tranquil ceremony.’’
Some Japanese news media suggested that the Pearl Harbor trip could even lift Abe’s approval ratings and give him the confidence to call an election in January.
The Japanese public is also aware of the importance of a symbolic visit to Pearl Harbor at a time of uncertainty in its country’s relationship with the United States.
Although the premier’s visit to Pearl Harbor was in the planning stages even before the US presidential election, Donald Trump’s win scared Japanese leaders because he had spent time on the campaign trail castigating Japan for not paying enough for its own defense.
And when Obama made a visit to Hiroshima in May, Trump posted on Twitter: “Does President Obama ever discuss the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor while he’s in Japan? Thousands of American lives lost.’’
Abe is technically not the first sitting prime minister to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial (Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida apparently visited the memorial during a stop in Hawaii in 1951), but he will be the first to participate in a public ceremony there.
He is not expected to apologize for the attacks, much as Obama did not apologize for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Instead, Abe will most likely repeat the repentance and condolences he offered in April 2015 when he addressed Congress.
In Japan, Pearl Harbor is often defined as one bookend of a war that ended with the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which some Japanese see as morally absolving the country of its aggression.
Guidelines from the Ministry of Education for teaching history stipulate that students learn that “Japan caused tremendous damage to many countries, especially in Asia, and that Japan also suffered unprecedented damages in the Tokyo air raids, the Battle of Okinawa and in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.’’
While most Japanese students visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki at least once during their school years, Pearl Harbor merits just one or two lines in most textbooks.
“The younger generation knows the term Pearl Harbor, but they don’t know much about it,’’ said Katsutoshi Chujo, a middle school history teacher near Tokyo. “Most young people don’t know much about the war. They know about Japan as a victim in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Tokyo air raids.’’
