Seven months after President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima, the city where World War II all but ended, his Japanese counterpart is paying his respects at the site where the brutal conflict began. Prime Minster Shinzo Abe is travelling to Pearl Harbor, where he and Obama hope to underscore the alliance between their two nations - 75 years after the Japanese surprise attack that brought America into history’s bloodiest war.
The two leaders are meeting Tuesday in Honolulu, on the archipelago’s Oahu island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The visit has particular resonance for Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent much of his childhood and adolescence here. Abe and Obama will visit the wreck of the USS Arizona, where 1,177 sailors and Marines died.