Abe's Pearl Harbor gambit is not likely to pay off

On purpose or by mistake, Japan's Foreign Ministry announced on Dec 5 that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Pearl Harbor on Monday and Tuesday, becoming the first head of government in office to do so.

But Abe is not the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit the Pearl Harbor; the Hawaii Hochi newspaper has reported that Shigeru Yoshida, Ichiro Hatoyama and Abe's grandfather Nobusuke Kishi visited the key World War II site as Japanese prime ministers in the 1950s. In fact, Hatoyama and Kishi are believed to have visited Pearl Harbor in an official capacity and the United States military even provided an honor guard to them.

Along with US President Barack Obama, Abe will visit the USS Arizona Memorial, which commemorates Americans killed during Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941.