Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was misquoted when a magazine reported that the former president supported Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's planned visit to a controversial war shrine, a close aid to Lee said yesterday.
Japanese ultra-nationalists have been calling on Koizumi to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The possibility of the visit has sparked criticism from China, South Korea and North Korea, where Japan's war-era military committed atrocities.
The Japanese weekly Shukan Shincho reported yesterday that Lee said he supported the controversial visit.
But aide Lee Ching-yi (
According to the aid, Lee spoke with freelance reporter Wakamiya Kiyoshi while attending an Aug. 2 dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in Taipei. The chat was mostly small talk, though the conversation did touch upon the subject of Koi-zumi's proposed visit to the war shrine.
"They may have talked about the issue, but the quote [in the magazine] oversimplified Lee's comments," Lee Ching-yi said.
At the time, the reporter had asked Lee for an interview with the weekly magazine, but Lee refused.
"The way that Shukan Shincho reported the matter was incorrect and inappropriate," the aide said.
Koizumi has said that he plans to visit the Yasukuni Shrine to honor those who died fighting for Japan during World War II.
The visit has aroused emotional controversy among Japan's neighbors as well as with many inside Japan.
Among the war dead enshrined at Yasukuni are wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo and 13 others judged by the Tokyo War Tribunals as war criminals.
In the magazine, Lee was quoted as saying it was natural for high-level government officials to visit a place that honor people who fought for their country. Lee said that his older brother, who fought for Japan, was also enshrined at the Yasukuni memorial.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony until Japan's defeat in 1945. Lee himself was a Japanese citizen until age 22.
The former president was also quoted as saying that other countries should not criticize Koizumi's visit to the shrine.
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