TOKYO: The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, sent his country’s wartime victims a defiant valedictory message when he visited a controversial war shrine on Wednesday on the anniversary of Japan’s defeat by the Allies. A sombre-looking Mr Koizumi arrived at Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo shortly before 8am and spent several minutes silently paying his respects to Japan’s war dead in his sixth and final visit as premier.
For weeks speculation had been mounting that the 64-year-old, who is to quit the premiership next month, would fulfil a promise he made five years ago when he was running for the presidency of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), to worship at Yasukuni on August 15, the most diplomatically explosive date possible.
Victims of Japanese wartime aggression condemned his trip to Yasukuni, which honours 2.5 million Japanese who died in battles since the second half of the 19th century, among them 14 executed class-A war criminals that include the wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo.
The controversy surrounding Yasukuni was highlighted closer to home last night when the home and office of Koichi Kato, a senior MP in the LDP who has criticised Mr Koizumi’s visits to the shrine, was burned down in Yamagata prefecture in northern Japan. A man said to be in his 50s or 60s was found bleeding from his stomach at the scene of the fire, which police believe was started deliberately. The Kyodo news agency reported that the unnamed man had stabbed himself.
Mr Kato, who in recent days has urged Mr Koizumi not to further damage ties with China by visiting Yasukuni, was not at home when the fire broke out.
Earlier in the day, South Korea had summoned the Japanese ambassador to Seoul to lodge a protest and the president, Roh Moo-hyun, called on Tokyo to “prove that it has no intention to repeat the past” in a speech to mark Korea’s liberation, in 1945, from 35 years of Japanese rule.
The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement: “On historical issues, Prime Minister Koizumi has consistently hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and lost the confidence, not only of the international community, but also of the Japanese people.” It said the visit had “undermined the political basis for ties between China and Japan”.
South Korea and China regard Yasukuni as a symbol of the worst excesses of Japanese militarism and claim that visits by Japanese politicians prove that Tokyo has yet to atone for a war of aggression that left millions dead across Asia.
But Mr Koizumi quickly rounded on his critics. “I do not go to justify the past war or to glorify militarism,” he said. “I go with the feeling that we should not wage war again and that we must not forget the sacrifice of those who went to war and died. I am not going there for the class-A war criminals.” His insistence on making annual pilgrimages since becoming prime minister in 2001 has helped send Sino-Japanese ties to their lowest level for years, with the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, protesting by refusing to hold summit talks with Mr Koizumi.
But on Wednesday the Japanese leader accused China and South Korea of trying to gain political capital. “I have told them that my visits to the shrine should not be used as a diplomatic card,” he said. The task of repairing relations with Japan’s neighbours will soon fall to Mr Koizumi’s successor, to be chosen in an LDP leadership election on September 20. The frontrunner, the chief cabinet secretary, Shinzo Abe, supported Mr Koizumi’s Yasukuni pilgrimages and reportedly made a secret visit to the shrine in April, but he has refused to say whether he would worship there as premier.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service
