Abe's visit at Pearl Harbor: demonstration of neglect

27.12.2016
United States

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pays a two-day visit to the US, where he will visit Pearl Harbor.

Never forget, never forgive

This visit is the first one for more than 50 years, organized in response to the visit by US President Barack Obama on Hiroshima. In this case, Shinzo Abe emphasizes that during the visit does not intend to apologize for the actions that took place during the war.

However, Obama also refused to apologize to the Japanese people, including survivors of the bombings - they took joint part in the celebrations.
But the fundamental difference is that Tokyo actions took place in the context of the war and the bombing of the Japanese cities of Washington was a war crime, for which, incidentally, no one has suffered punishment.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of Japanese people, including survivors of that bombing, do not consider Americans guilty for the tragedy. In turn, US citizens call Abe to repent for what happened during the attack, which caused huge losses of American soldiers, in fact, due to their own lack of preparation.

Parallel processes

Immediately after Shinzo Abe arrived in the US, Honolulu and Japan concluded a number of important contracts concerning remaining US military bases in Japan.

At the same time, the amendments to the existing contract could be called a small, fairly obvious attempt to get out from under the occupation.

One of the most important agreements was the amendment regarding the legal status of US troops. Tokyo has long sought to have US citizens came under the jurisdiction of the Japanese law. Now, to prosecute Americans for numerous crimes will be much easier.

In addition, Minister of Defense of Japan Tomomi Inada has canceled part of the activities relating to the inspection of the US military base in Guam, in which she was going to study the work of the US missile defense system for a subsequent purchase.

Russian factor

Meanwhile, Japanese companies are known to be willing to invest $11 billion in the project to create a Russia-Japan energy bridge despite the sanctions and the law banning the import of electricity. Moreover, the initiative for this has come from the Japanese side.

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