ID :
48351
Sun, 03/01/2009 - 20:30
Auther :

Japan emperor, empress mull visit to Pearl Harbor around July: sources

WASHINGTON, March 1 Kyodo -
Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko plan to visit around July Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii, the scene of Japan's surprise attack that ushered in the
Pacific part of World War II, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said
Sunday.
The visit would be set on the way back to Japan from the couple's planned
official trip to Canada this summer, with the Japanese and U.S. governments
working to finalize the schedule, the sources told Kyodo News.
If realized, it would be a moment to symbolize the postwar reconciliation
between the two countries as no sitting Japanese premiers have so far gone to
Pearl Harbor. House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono visited last
December.
The imperial couple has a track record of making pilgrimages to war-linked
places -- Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa Prefecture in 1995, and Saipan, a
commonwealth territory of the United States, in 2005, which respectively marked
the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the end of the war.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the world's first and second atom-bombed cities, and
Okinawa is the only part of Japan that experienced ground battles during the
war. Saipan is a site of fierce wartime battles between Japan and the United
States.
The emperor and empress weighed a visit to Pearl Harbor when they made an
official trip to the United States in June 1994 and stayed in Hawaii, but gave
it up in light of criticism that it would constitute political exploitation of
the emperor.
The sources said the itinerary is being carefully arranged in consideration of
some other factors, including the couple's health.
The couple's planned visit this coming summer will be their first overseas trip
since 2007, when they went on a European tour that took them to Sweden, the
three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Britain.
Under the latest plan, the emperor and empress will unofficially stop over in
Hawaii, the sources said. The couple will stay primarily to interact with local
Japanese-American groups and visit Pearl Harbor during a break, they said.
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Dec. 7,
1941, brought the United States into World War II. The attack on the U.S. naval
base killed about 2,400 U.S. soldiers and dozens of Japanese soldiers.
Currently, Pearl Harbor is home to the USS Arizona Memorial, a shrine to the
sunken battleship USS Arizona. The battleship USS Missouri, which was the site
of Japan's signing in September 1945 of the official instrument of surrender,
is also moored at the harbor.
==Kyodo

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