Although the premier’s visit to Pearl Harbor was in the planning stages even before the American presidential election, Donald J. Trump’s win scared Japanese leaders because he had spent time on the campaign trail castigating Japan for not paying enough for its own defense. And when Mr. Obama made a visit to Hiroshima in May, Mr. Trump posted on Twitter: “Does President Obama ever discuss the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor while he’s in Japan? Thousands of American lives lost.”

Mr. Abe is not the first sitting prime minister to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial (Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida apparently visited the memorial during a stop in Hawaii in 1951), but he will be the first to participate in a public ceremony there.

He is not expected to apologize for the attacks, much as Mr. Obama did not apologize for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Instead, Mr. Abe will most likely repeat the repentance and condolences he offered in April 2015 when he addressed Congress.

Although it was 75 years in the making, Mr. Abe’s trip to Pearl Harbor is in some ways the easiest gesture of reconciliation that Japan could make as it confronts its wartime past.

Asia has long been plagued by an inability among the war’s combatants to move beyond its events and enmities. South Korea and China remain angered by what they see as Japanese efforts to ignore or sugarcoat atrocities. By contrast, the relationship between Japan and the United States long ago overcame such difficulties.

“I think that’s because the United States was a good winner and Japan was a good loser,” said Tamaki Tsukada, a spokesman at the Japanese Embassy in Washington. “The United States was magnanimous after defeating Japan. It did not impose harsh terms. If anything, the U.S. provided very generous support, humanitarian and economic.” The Japanese accepted the American postwar occupation peacefully.

Even in the United States, where “Remember Pearl Harbor” was once a rallying cry, the sense of outrage about what was viewed as a sneaky and disreputable attack has largely dissipated, said Daniel Martinez, the chief historian at the Pearl Harbor memorial. Part of that is time, and also sympathetic popular culture portrayals of Japanese attackers in movies like “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and “Pearl Harbor,” Mr. Martinez said.