Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stopped at several memorials in Hawaii, before he visits the site of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Abe made no public remarks, and stood in silence before a wreath of flowers at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a memorial to those who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. His visit comes seven months after Obama became the first serving US president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where the United States dropped an atomic bomb in the closing days of the war in 1945. 

"On this occasion, I am very much looking forward to sending out a strong message about the value of reconciliation, as well as our sincere prayers for those who died in the war," Abe said.