Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered "everlasting condolences" to American war dead at Pearl Harbor on Tuesday but issued no apology for the country's wartime aggression as he paid a visit to the Hawaii naval base 75 years after Japan's surprise bombing.

"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," Abe said during a visit to the USS Arizona Memorial.

"We must never repeat the horrors of war again," he said.

Abe said the US and Japan have since the war become "allies with deep and strong ties rarely found anywhere in history," stressing that it's thanks to the "power of reconciliation made possible through the spirit of tolerance."

But Abe stopped short of offering an apology for the country's aggression.

US President Barack Obama traveled together with Abe to the memorial, an offshore structure set up above the wreck of the warship sunk in Japan's 1941 surprise attack that killed more than 2,400 people and brought the US into World War II.

Obama hailed Abe's visit as a "historic gesture that speaks to the power of reconciliation and the alliance between the American and Japanese peoples" and a "reminder that even the deepest wounds of war can give way to friendship and lasting peace."

"Today, the alliance between the United States and Japan, bound not only by shared interests, but also rooted in common values, stands as the cornerstone of peace and stability in the Asia Pacific, and a force for progress around the globe," Obama said.

"Our alliance has never been stronger."

The visit to Pearl Harbor is the latest in a series of moves by Abe to make relations with the US stronger. Since taking office in late 2012, Abe has done everything possible to help address American economic and security needs in a region marked by China's rise, including expanding Japan's military roles overseas.

However, the Japanese leader has been criticized by neighboring countries South Korea and China for failing to atone properly for the country's militaristic past. The Abe administration has also been criticized for efforts to whitewash the militaristic past.

Abe's visit was also seen as a response to Obama's trip to Hiroshima earlier this year that made him the first sitting US president to visit the Japanese city since the 1945 US nuclear bombing at the end of World War II.

Abe is not the first Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor. In 1951, Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida reportedly paid a quiet visit to the site during a stop in Hawaii, and two other then sitting prime ministers visited there, including Abe's grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, in the 1950s. (Yonhap)