Kuniyoshi Takimoto returned to Japan after World War II and yelled "Tadaima!" when he reached the door of his parents' house. The popular greeting simply means "I'm home!"

But this time, there was no recognition on his mother's face. Standing before her was a grown man weighing just 30 kilograms.

She stared at him for a long time, without knowing who he was. She had believed he was killed in battle.

Mr Takimoto is now a healthy 95-year-old. He walks upright and lives independently in his home in Osaka.

Pearl Harbor veteran Kuniyoshi Takimoto, 95, has had a great distrust in government since the war. ( ABC News )

When he speaks, it is clear he is still angry his young life was wasted in war.

"War brainwashes young people with words," he says.

"War is decided by old people in the government. Who goes to war? It's the young people. They go and die.

"Young people die before their parents."

Mr Takimoto was stationed on the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu in the Western Pacific. Attack planes launched from that carrier to bomb Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941.

As the planes took off, he says he wondered whether Japan should be taking on such a big and powerful enemy.

It has been 75 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. ( US National Archives )

His distrust in government is so great he cannot see any good in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's planned visit to Pearl Harbor.

"I think the purpose of Mr Abe going to Pearl Harbor is to prolong his own Government," he says.

Six months after Pearl Harbor, Mr Takimoto was on that same aircraft carrier — the Hiryu — when it was bombed by the United States in the Battle of Midway.

"At the time, 1,500 people were onboard 1,000 of them died. 500 survived and I was among them by chance. There was a space underneath the deck and we escaped there," he says.

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But when he returned to Japan, he realised the Japanese government had lied to its people about the casualties it suffered at Midway and elsewhere, and no government since has helped him regain that trust.

"I think the current government is not governing for the people," he says.

"I think it's a government that will continue to deceive. My words are harsh, but I think this is the truth."

He and his fellow survivors from the Hiryu were sent to Truk island, a Japanese territory and naval base to see out the war.

It was here he suffered from illness and malnutrition.

The attack on Pearl Harbor led to the United States' entry into World War II. ( US National Archives )

Prime Minister Abe's visit to Pearl Harbor follows the emotional and symbolic visit of President Obama to Hiroshima earlier this year.

The President offered comfort to the survivors of the nuclear blast, but did not offer an apology for the US's actions.

Prime Minister Abe is expected to strike a similar tone at Pearl Harbor.

International Relations Professor Stephen Nagy, from Tokyo's Christian University, says Prime Minister Abe is likely to talk about the relationship between the two countries.

"I think he'll focus on how despite the fact that United States and Japan have had a very difficult past over the past 75 years, they've built this really multi-dimensional relationship that's not just a one-dimensional security alliance," he says.

Shinzo Abe will be the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit the site of the 1941 attack. ( Toru Hanai: Reuters )

Professor Nagy says Mr Abe may be signalling to Donald Trump that Japan's relationship with the US is central.

"I think he's sending a message to the new administration that he's firmly committed to the US-Japanese relationship," Professor Nagy says.

"Firmly committed to building a future by recognising the past and finding ways to demonstrate that … I think visiting Pearl Harbor at the end of the year is an excellent way to do that.

"I think it's strategic, but I also think it's heartfelt."

Mr Takimoto says Japan hasn't moved on from its wartime thinking and until it does, any gesture of reconciliation will be meaningless.

It seems time can't heal his old wounds.