The shrine commemorates Japan’s war dead but also honors several convicted war criminals. Previous visits by politicians have angered China and South Korea. They see the shrine as a symbol of Japan‘s war-time aggression.
Early on Thursday’s Abe‘s ministers for internal affairs and the North Korea issue, Yoshitaka Shindo and Keiji Furuya, visited the shrine in central Tokyo to pay their respects. More lawmakers were expected to visit during the day.
Abe, who visited the shrine in October 2012 when he was the leader of the opposition, sent a ritual offering with an aide but was not “The leader wanted to pass along his prayers for the people who died in the war and apologies for not making a personal visit,” Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) official Koichi Hagiuda said. “He considered from various angles and made a general judgment not to come to pray today,” the official, who made the offering on behalf of Abe, added.
The shrine commemorates some 2.5 million Japanese men, women and children who died for their country in wars. However, the souls of 14 Class A convicted war criminals from World War II are also enshrined there, including Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo, who was executed for war crimes in 1948.
Visits to the shrine by lawmakers anger and offend Japan’s neighbors, to whom the shrine represents Japan‘s past militarism, including the colonization of the Korean peninsula and the invasion of China.
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com