Former US airman Jack DeTour, 92, and Japanese fighter pilot Shiro Wakita, 88, sworn enemies during World War II, together poured whiskey from a battered canteen into Pearl Harbour on Sunday to commemorate the 1941 attack on the US naval base.

As the sun rose over the USS Arizona Memorial, the two former enemy pilots joined the Blackened Canteen service on the eve of the 74th anniversary of the December 7 attack, which took 2,403 lives and drew the US into World War II.

Standing side by side after meeting for the first time ever, retired Air Force Colonel DeTour and former Imperial Japanese Navy Zero Pilot Wakita together gripped the war-torn US military-issue metal canteen and poured whiskey into the watery grave of the US Navy ship sunk by Japanese bombers.

Now a symbol of friendship, the scorched war relic was recovered in 1945 in Shizuoka, Japan, after two B-29 US bombers collided overhead. The 23 Americans killed were buried alongside Japanese citizens who died in the bombing raid. Found among the wreckage was the blackened canteen, filled with whiskey, and it was kept in Japan to remember loved ones lost.

Since the 1980s, Japanese residents have regularly brought it to Pearl Harbor for the ceremony aimed at maintaining peace.

“To know we have this friendship is great. It’s fantastic,” said DeTour, who wore a purple flower lei over his dark suit.

To know we have this friendshipis great. It’s fantastic

DeTour now lives in Honolulu and was a young man from Oregon when he joined the military in 1942.

There were no Pearl Harbour survivors among the World War II veterans attending this year’s canteen ceremony, said Gary Meyers, spokesman for the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor.

The recovered canteen of a US B29 bomber pilot that crashed in Japan during World War II on display during the Blackened Canteen ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial, honouring the 74th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour.The recovered canteen of a US B29 bomber pilot that crashed in Japan during World War II on display during the Blackened Canteen ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial, honouring the 74th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour.

The last surviving officer from the USS Arizona, Joseph Langdell, died on February 4 in California at age 100. An interment service for Langdell, who was a 27-year-old ensign sleeping in quarters on shore when the surprise attack was launched, took place at Pearl Harbour yesterday.

At the canteen ceremony, Hiroya Sugano, director of the Zero Fighter Admirers’ Club, said he keeps the canteen in his possession and carries it to the ceremony each year because it is a powerful symbol.

“The Blackened Canteen is an inspiration for peace,” said Sugano.

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