Japanese war shrine visits anger China, South Korea
Source: Agencies |
April 24, 2013, Wednesday
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Tensions flared between Japan and its Asian neighbors after a Japanese lawmakers' visit to a shrine honoring Japan's war dead, including 14 World War II leaders convicted as war criminals.
China, South Korea and North Korea bore the brunt of Japan's militarist invasion in Asia.
China chastised Japan for the visit by at least 168 lawmakers to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine yesterday. The pilgrimage came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an offering and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and two other ministers visited Yasukuni over the weekend.
"Regardless of what method or what identity these Japanese leaders take in visiting Yasukuni Shrine, fundamentally it is intentionally denying Japan's militaristic invasionist history," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
"The way they recognize history and treat the issue of the Yasukuni Shrine is an important criterion, based on which their close neighbors in Asia and the global community will watch and learn what road Japan will take in the future," said Hua.
"We urge Japan to be responsible to history, to be responsible to the people and take a responsible attitude to the future and take realistic actions to win the trust of the international community, stop causing harm to itself and stop isolationist measures."
South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan's 1910-1945 colonization run deep, cancelled a trip to Japan by its foreign minister following the weekend shrine visits.
And a group of Japanese parliamentarians belonging to a Japan-China parliamentarian friendship group scrapped plans for a May 1-3 visit to China after Beijing said they could not meet with President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials.
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young yesterday urged "deep soul-searching" by Japan to discover how such visits are seen in neighboring countries. "Yasukuni Shrine is a place to ... glorify wars," he said.
Abe didn't visit Yasukuni at the weekend but instead donated ceremonial ornaments marked "Prime Minister" to the shrine, whose compound has a museum glorifying Japan's wartime past.
However, several vice ministers and top executives of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party joined yesterday's visit.
Abe last visited Yasukuni in October, when he was opposition leader. As prime minister in 2006-2007, before resigning for health reasons, he refrained from making any visits. But as recently as February he said his decision not to visit the shrine during that time was his "greatest regret."
Though Abe has focused mostly on economic policy since taking office in December, he has campaigned for revising Japan's US-inspired constitution, which renounced war after the country's defeat in World War II, and for recognizing the country's Self-Defense Forces as a national military. He also favors revising Japan's past apologies for atrocities committed by its Imperial Army before and during World War II.
Japan's liberal-leaning Asahi newspaper also criticized the visit.
"Why spark a source of friction?" Asahi asked. "What on earth is the Abe administration doing when improved relations with neighboring countries are most needed?"
Fumio Kishida, Japan's foreign minister, said he would try to avoid adverse fallout from the Yasukuni visits.
"I will handle the situation so that this will not affect our bilateral relations," he said. "It is important to communicate on a political level, and our door for dialogue is always open."
Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Tokyo's Sophia University, said Japan may have miscalculated how China and South Korea would respond to the shrine visits.
"Japanese politicians fail to realize (the visits) are seen as provocations. It's one thing after another. It's the rightward shift of Japanese politics that I think (Seoul and Beijing) are more worried about," Nakano said.
China, South Korea and North Korea bore the brunt of Japan's militarist invasion in Asia.
China chastised Japan for the visit by at least 168 lawmakers to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine yesterday. The pilgrimage came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an offering and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and two other ministers visited Yasukuni over the weekend.
"Regardless of what method or what identity these Japanese leaders take in visiting Yasukuni Shrine, fundamentally it is intentionally denying Japan's militaristic invasionist history," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
"The way they recognize history and treat the issue of the Yasukuni Shrine is an important criterion, based on which their close neighbors in Asia and the global community will watch and learn what road Japan will take in the future," said Hua.
"We urge Japan to be responsible to history, to be responsible to the people and take a responsible attitude to the future and take realistic actions to win the trust of the international community, stop causing harm to itself and stop isolationist measures."
South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan's 1910-1945 colonization run deep, cancelled a trip to Japan by its foreign minister following the weekend shrine visits.
And a group of Japanese parliamentarians belonging to a Japan-China parliamentarian friendship group scrapped plans for a May 1-3 visit to China after Beijing said they could not meet with President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials.
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young yesterday urged "deep soul-searching" by Japan to discover how such visits are seen in neighboring countries. "Yasukuni Shrine is a place to ... glorify wars," he said.
Abe didn't visit Yasukuni at the weekend but instead donated ceremonial ornaments marked "Prime Minister" to the shrine, whose compound has a museum glorifying Japan's wartime past.
However, several vice ministers and top executives of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party joined yesterday's visit.
Abe last visited Yasukuni in October, when he was opposition leader. As prime minister in 2006-2007, before resigning for health reasons, he refrained from making any visits. But as recently as February he said his decision not to visit the shrine during that time was his "greatest regret."
Though Abe has focused mostly on economic policy since taking office in December, he has campaigned for revising Japan's US-inspired constitution, which renounced war after the country's defeat in World War II, and for recognizing the country's Self-Defense Forces as a national military. He also favors revising Japan's past apologies for atrocities committed by its Imperial Army before and during World War II.
Japan's liberal-leaning Asahi newspaper also criticized the visit.
"Why spark a source of friction?" Asahi asked. "What on earth is the Abe administration doing when improved relations with neighboring countries are most needed?"
Fumio Kishida, Japan's foreign minister, said he would try to avoid adverse fallout from the Yasukuni visits.
"I will handle the situation so that this will not affect our bilateral relations," he said. "It is important to communicate on a political level, and our door for dialogue is always open."
Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Tokyo's Sophia University, said Japan may have miscalculated how China and South Korea would respond to the shrine visits.
"Japanese politicians fail to realize (the visits) are seen as provocations. It's one thing after another. It's the rightward shift of Japanese politics that I think (Seoul and Beijing) are more worried about," Nakano said.
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