Japan, United States sign agreement for Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima sister parks

June 29 (UPI) -- Japan and the United States signed a symbolic agreement on Thursday that made the sites of two of the most important events in World War II sister parks.

The U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emmanuel joined Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui in Tokyo in recognizing the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii and the Peace Memorial Park of Hiroshima as sister parks. The arrangement was signed at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.

The gesture had been in the making since 2016 when then-President Barack Obama's visited Hiroshima and late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe followed with a trip to Pearl Harbor.

The two parks, as part of the agreement, will organize peace events for young people and share ideas and expertise about how to attract more visitors.

Not everyone was happy about the ceremony. A coalition that supported Japanese atomic bomb survivors asked the Hiroshima city government to back away from the sister city plan. Former Hiroshima Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi led a group that on Thursday submitted a petition to the city voicing opposition to the plan.

Emanuel said while the agreement is meant to continue reconciliation, he understands the anger that still exists among some on both sides.

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 killed 2,334 and drew the United States into World War II where it tried to remain neutral. The United States then dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, killing 140,000, which led to the end of the war.