The Japanese minster of justice visited a Tokyo war shrine yesterday morning to become the second member of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet attending its latest ritual, which has already angered China and South Korea.
The Yasukuni Shrine honors millions of Japanese dead, including more than 30,000 Taiwanese who died in World War II.
“I paid respect in order to express my gratitude to the souls of those who fought for the nation and sacrificed their lives,” Japanese Minster of Justice Mitsuhide Iwaki told reporters.
His visit came a day after dozens of lawmakers, including Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs Sanae Takaichi, made their pilgrimage to the leafy central Tokyo shrine for a spring festival.
South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Cho June-hyuck said in a statement that the shrine “beautifies the colonial past and war of aggression, and enshrines war criminals.”
However, Abe and other nationalists said the shrine is merely a place to remember fallen soldiers and compare it to burial grounds such as Arlington National Cemetery in the US.
Abe went in December 2013 to mark his first year in power, a visit that sparked fury in Beijing and Seoul and earned him a diplomatic rebuke from the US, which said it was “disappointed” by the action.
He made a ritual offering to the shrine earlier this week, but refrained from going and reactions by China and South Korea to Yasukuni visits, while remaining critical, have become less intense as Japan has taken steps over the past 18 months to improve relations with both countries and Abe has held summit meetings with their leaders.
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