Shinzo Abe is using Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima as another attempt to whitewash the country’s war crimes, according to a Japanese professor, Takashi Yoshino, from the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University.

Yoshino said that Abe has been pushing for a stronger military alliance with the United States. The prime minister helped pass a series of security bills last year, which will allow Japan’s military to intervene overseas to defend its allies.

Yoshino also said the state secrecy bill passed by the lower house in 2014 is aimed at boosting intelligence sharing with the U.S. The professor says these measures were welcomed by Washington but met with strong opposition within Japan.