August 25, 2007	Saturday	Sha’aban 11, 1428

NEW DELHI, Aug 24: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met the son of an Indian judge on Thursday who opposed punishing Japanese war criminals convicted by an Allied tribunal, a move that has come under fire in some Asia countries.

Radhabinod Pal was the only member of the 11-judge Allied war crimes tribunal after World War Two to voice dissent at the process, criticising the panel as an example of victors’ justice.

“Your father is still respected by many in Japan,” Zee TV quoted Mr Abe as saying during the 20-minute meeting with the 81-year-old Prasanta Pal, whose father is a hero to Japanese nationalists.

Japanese media have said Mr Abe’s meeting in Kolkata could fray improving relations with China, which suffered under Japan’s military aggression in the first half of the 20th century.

An editorial last week in Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s biggest newspaper, criticised Mr Abe’s planned meeting with Mr Pal, saying that it was aimed at claiming innocence for the war criminals.

“He will travel all the way to India to embrace the descendants of a judge hailed as a hero by Japanese militarists for claiming innocence for Class A war criminals,” it said.

At the meeting, Prasanta Pal showed Abe a picture of his father with Mr Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, during a 1966 visit to Japan. Kishi, who was listed as a war criminal but never convicted, was an ardent admirer of the judge.