Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her partner Tim Mathieson lay a wreath at the Veterans' Day Ceremony at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu today. Picture: Ray Strange
- Gillard pays tribute to war dead at Veterans Day ceremony
- Prime Minnister�in Hawaii for APEC leaders' summit
- 'Australia will never forget the sacrifices the US has made'
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has paid tribute to America's war dead at a moving Veterans Day ceremony in Hawaii.
The ceremony at Honolulu's picturesque Punchbowl Cemetery was Ms Gillard's first official engagement of her trip for the APEC leaders' summit.
Just a few kilometres from the site of the infamous Pearl Harbor attack of World War 2, Ms Gillard was given a 19-gun salute as she arrived at the cemetery.
She told the crowd of veterans and their families it was a great privilege to be with them.
"In this beautiful and hallowed American place where so many of America's own lie in graves which they found too soon you would be well entitled to say: They died for us. This is a day and a place for ourselves alone," she said.
"But we Australians know that this is not your way.
"Because we know that so many of these buried here died for us too.
"When we were under attack in the Pacific, so many of these buried here were among those who came to our aid.
"They fought with us, together, side by side, step by bloody step."
It was US sailors during the Battle of the Coral Sea that eliminated Australia's fears of a Japanese invasion, she said.
"It is a battle which is immortal in Australia," she said.
The importance the US places on Veterans Day says something about the country's peace-loving nature, she said.
"It is not the anniversary of the onset of a great conflict.
"Not the commemoration of a great victory or great feat of arms, it is the day and the hour of the end of the Great War.
"You remember your veterans in the moment to which each one of them dedicated their dearest hopes - you remember them at the moment when peace began."
Australia will never forget the sacrifices the US has made for peace, she said.
Ms Gillard and her partner Tim Mathieson then joined local luminaries and veterans in laying wreaths at the memorial.
Ms Gillard will later on Friday local time meet with business leaders and address APEC region CEOs.
She will also meet the leaders of Singapore and Russia.
Free trade and investment is set to dominate her talks.
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