tammy lightner is in honolulu covering it all. >> hey, hallie.s is a significant day in history. this marks the first time that a japanese prime minister will have an

nbc's tammie lightner has more from honolulu. >> reporter: a somber moment, the prime minister of japanng his respects at pearl harbor on the u.s.s. arizona memorial. above where hundreds of sailors and marines are entombed below. >> translator: it was a place which brought utter silence to me. >> reporter: japanese prime minister shinzo abe visiting the battlefield where over 2,400 americans died. the first japanese leader to visit the memorial. today abe stopping short of making an apology. >> translator: i offer my sincere and everlasting condolences. >> it is here that we remember that even when hatred burns hottest, even when the tug of tribalism is at its most primal, we must resist the urge to turn inward. >> reporter: al rodriguez was stationed at pearl harbor when the bombs started falling. >> you could see the planes from above with the circle, we knew the emy was japanese. >> reporter: he thinks the time has come for a visit like this, even as his own emotions are still raw. >> i get very emotional. >> reporter: invited to be part of the ceremony today, he never thought he'd

>> nbc's tammy lightner from honolulu. thank you very much. howard fineman from the huffington post joins me now from washington. howard, you just wrote a peace about th -- a piece about this. you talked about the symbol ichl of the visit. expected to be a powerful visit. what do you expect to see today? >> what i expect to see is both visual and verbal expression by president obama of his world view. one ironically but appropriately grounded in his home state of hawaii. it's very international, very mixed race. 15% of hawaiians are of japanese descent. they have been taking leading roles in democratic party politics in hawaii. it's obama's vision and i think it is abe's vision as well. one that's very much under assault these days is donald trump, the president-elect tweets out threats to most of the world. don't forget that barack obama's vision is one of assuming the possibility of cooperation, not confrontation. he's tried to make peace with iran. he wants to make a deal in the middle east. he's tried to cement his relations with japan. th

>> tammy lightner in hawaii. thanks for that. back to politics, democrats looking for answers after the shocking loss in november's presidential election. where does the party go from here? one of the things they need to do and one of the first ares of business is to pick a new national chairman. the next guest is exploring a bid to lead the national committee. he hails from the midwest and the region democrats need to win back if they want a shot thea the white house in 2020. he wrote the letter from fly over country. fly over country. if you look at the political map and the election map, 3,000 counties in the country and about 2600 of them i think were red in the trump-clinton election. the red counties are what people call fly over country. tell the people in the blue counties where democrats win elections, what is the conversation going on in the red counties that is not taking place in the blue counties. >> the conversation we need to have whether they are red or blue is about our democratic values. people wanted to hear th

>> tammy lightner is covering this visit at the historic site. i thank you. as we continue to wait the president's remarks, a national security correspondent. this is quite a backdrop. >> in many ways, while it seems to be about closing up the future, it is really very much about president obama trying to leave an image of what he tried to do with the japan relationship and the broader asian relationship. he came to the conclusion about halfway through his own presidency that the biggest single impediment with dealing with china and north korea was the fact that japan had not resolved with its own neighbors. the only way to begin to do that was to start with the u.s. and japan and hope that spreads to japan and south korea and china. this is a big part of that. >> how much should we be looking for commentary overtly or covertly about the next president, donald trump given comments in recent days off camera. speaking to my colleague and saying let there be an arms race going forward. do we anticipate anything would be directed towards the administration that w

my colleague tammy lightner is traveling with the president. she's in honolulu now with the latest.a victory of sorts for the president in being able to draw asia, japan specifically, and the united states closer. >> that's right, peter. for the last eight years the president has worked hard on this relationship. it culminated in may when he visited hiroshima. if you remember the president didn't make apologies for what happened in the past. just like we don't expect the japanese prime minister to make apologies today. this is more about looking forward. we spoke with ambassador caroline kennedy about this

. >> that's nbc's tammie lightner in north dakota with that report. louis? >>> the death toll in oakland, california, continues to climb. officials say at least 33 people were killed, including teenagers, when the facility went up in flames friday night during a dance party there. they say they expect the number to climb, adding the crews have only searched about 40% of the building so far. officials say the warehouse, known as the ghost ship, was being used as an art collective with artists living in the structure illegally. the building's owner told nbc news yesterday they did not know people were living there. fire officials called the inside of the building a labyrinth of work spaces. oakland's mayor announced yesterday the alameda district attorney's office has launched a criminal investigation. officials describe the difficult task of reaching out to the victims' families. >> so, it's like waiting for your name to be called and knowing it's going to be the worst day of your life, so that's what we're dealing with. >> the a.p. identified derek alimina a