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“I offer my sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls of those who lost their lives here, as well as to the spirits of all the brave men and women whose lives were taken by a war that commenced in this very place, and also to the souls of the countless innocent people who became victims of the war,” Mr. Abe said. He added, “We must never repeat the horrors of war again.”
For his part, Mr. Obama described in detail what occurred on the day of the attack, highlighted acts of heroism by American service members and said that the visit of Mr. Abe “reminds us of what is possible between nations and between peoples.’’
Mr. Obama added, in what seemed a warning after the scorching American presidential campaign: “Even when hatred burns hottest and the tug of tribalism is at the most primal, we must resist the urge to turn in. We must resist the urge to demonize those who are different. The sacrifice made here, the angst of war, reminds us to seek the divine spark that is common to all humanity.”
The president and prime minister made their remarks at the end of a long pier that overlooks Pearl Harbor and the memorial to the attack — a small building on top of the carcass of the battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor, where 2,400 American sailors, Marines and others were killed in the surprise military strike on Dec. 7, 1941. Mr. Abe and Mr. Obama laid wreaths made of white peace lilies at the memorial, and then dropped purple Hawaiian orchids into the water.
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– Japanese Leader Offers Condolences in Visit to Pearl Harbor – The New York Times
(via dendroica)
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2iBYwxT.
