Ambassador Kennedy bids farewell to Japan, thanks Abe for supporting ties with US

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File photo of outgoing US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy. Photo: AP

Published: 3:36pm, 16 Jan 2017Updated: 3:35pm, 16 Jan 2017

Outgoing US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy expressed her gratitude to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his contribution to strengthening the US-Japan alliance in her farewell message released on Monday.

“I want to thank Prime Minister Abe and the members of his government for working to strengthen our ‘alliance of hope’ and for sharing President [Barack’ Obama’s belief in the ‘power of reconciliation’,” said Kennedy, who is set to leave Japan on Wednesday, in a video message released by the US Embassy in Tokyo.

(From R) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and U.S. Forces Japan Commander Lt. Gen. Jerry Martinez hold a joint press conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 21, 2016. The two countries said thousands of hectares of land used by the U.S. military on Okinawa will be returned to Japanese control the following day, in the biggest land transfer since rule over the island prefecture was restored to Japan in 1972. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Kennedy cited Abe’s visit last December to Pearl Harbour, which was attacked by Japan in 1941, and for arranging Obama’s historic visit last May to Hiroshima, where the United States dropped an atomic bomb in 1945.

“Most of all I want to thank him, and Foreign Minister Kishida, for welcoming President Obama to Hiroshima and for visiting Pearl Harbour last month,” she said.

Touching upon Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of US forces in Japan, Kennedy said she is “grateful” to the people of Okinawa for helping her better understand their struggle.