Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Pearl Harbor on Tuesday. He'll be at the US naval base in Hawaii with President Barack Obama. Abe will be Japan's first incumbent leader at Pearl Harbor since a brief stopover by former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida in 1951.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary says Abe won't apologize for the attack on the base on December 7th, 1941.Japan's bombing raid killed more than 2,000 military personnel and dealt a heavy blow to the US Pacific fleet, drawing the United States into World War Two. Former US President Franklin Roosevelt called it "a date which will live in infamy".

The visit has provoked global criticism. Dozens of historians and artists from the United States, Canada, and South Korea have signed an open letter urging Abe to reflect on Japan's military history and mourn other victims in Asia.