Abe pays respects at Hawaii memorials a day before Pearl Harbour visit

On Monday, 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 US Armed Forces. 

Abe, joined by two of his Cabinet members, bowed his head before wreaths of white flowers and greenery laid at the feet of stone monuments at Makiki Cemetery in Honolulu dedicated to Japanese who settled in Hawaii in the 1800s. 

The crowning event of the trip comes on Tuesday, when Abe and US President Barack Obama will visit Pearl Harbour, the site of the Japanese attack 75-years-ago that drew the United States into World War II. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, is spending his winter vacation there. 

Abe does not plan to apologize for the 1941 attack but to console the souls of those who died in the war, his aides said this month. Japan hopes to present a strong alliance with the United States amid concerns about China’s expanding military capability. Japan was monitoring a group of Chinese warships that entered the top half of the South China Sea earlier on Monday. 

Japanese leaders hope to send a unity message as well to President-elect Donald Trump, who triggered concerns before his November 8 election by opposing the USled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and threaten ing to force allied countries to pay more to host US forces. 

Amid wind and rain on Monday, Abe presented a wreath at the armed forces memorial located at Honolulu’s Punchbowl Crater. After a moment of silence, he signed a guestbook and then stopped at the grave of former US Senator Daniel Inouye, who fought in World War II in Europe and whose parents were Japanese. He died in 2012.