TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made his third ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, but again he did not visit it to avoid angering Asian victims of Japan’s war-time aggression.
Visits by Japanese leaders to the shrine in Tokyo have outraged China and South Korea, which suffered under Japanese occupation before and during the Second World War because war-time leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honoured there along with Japan’s war dead.
Abe made the offering in the name of the prime minister to mark the shrine’s autumn festival, which runs until Sunday, a shrine official said.
The official said the offering was made before yesterday, but gave no details. A deputy government spokesman said Abe made the offering in his private capacity and that the government was in no position to comment.
“I believe it’s natural to express homage to those who fought and sacrificed their precious lives for the sake of their country, and to pray for the repose of their souls,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, speaking at a regular briefing in Beijing, admonished Abe not to visit the shrine.
“We again ask Japan to seriously contemplate its history of aggression, and to sincerely respect the feelings of China and other victimised countries,” Hua said. Reuters
