Zenji Abe plans to make one last trip to Hawaii to remember Pearl Harbor this Dec. 7.
But there is a major difference between him and the other Pearl Harbor survivors gathering in Honolulu for what may be their final reunion.

Abe was on the other side.

A longtime Tokyo resident, Abe is one of the very last of the Japanese survivors from the Dec. 7, 1941, raid on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Only a handful of the 751 aviators remain.

For people living in the Triangle, Abe's presence in Hawaii is particularly noteworthy -- he was the dive-bomber pilot who attacked and scored a hit on the light cruiser USS Raleigh, which lay moored northwest of Ford Island in the center of Pearl Harbor.