TOKYO – Japan’s new liberal prime minister declined at the weekend to visit a shrine which has outraged Asian neighbours for honouring war criminals, breaking from past governments’ tradition, and instead apologised for the suffering caused by the second World War.
Members of the now-opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which ruled Japan almost continuously since the end of the war, made a point by carrying out their own trip to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on the 65th anniversary of the end of the war.
The Shinto shrine, a spectacular building with sweeping roofs and a museum in its grounds that glorifies kamikaze pilots, has sparked controversy by honouring the 2½ million Japanese war dead, including war criminals such as Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister who was executed in 1948.
Among those who visited Yasukuni was LDP leader Sadakazu Tanigaki and former prime minister Shinzo Abe. About 40 MPs went to the shrine, but none from prime minister Naoto Kan’s cabinet, according to Japanese media reports.
Mr Kan leads the Democratic Party, which took power last year after winning elections on promises of greater transparency and grass-roots democracy. It is the first time since the end of the war that the entire Japanese cabinet has avoided visiting Yasukuni on August 15th, the day Japan surrendered in the war.
“We caused great damage and suffering to many nations during the war, especially to the people of Asia,” Mr Kan told a crowd of about 6,000 at an annual memorial service for the war dead at Budokan hall in Tokyo.
“We feel a deep regret, and we offer our sincere feelings of condolence to those who suffered and their families,” he said.
“We renew our promise to never wage war . . . to never repeat again the mistake of war,” he added.
Among those listening to Mr Kan’s address was Emperor Akihito, whose father, war-time emperor Hirohito, announced the surrender in a radio broadcast.
Emperor Akihito, who has never visited Yasukuni, led a moment of silence at noon, bowing deeply before a stage of yellow and white chrysanthemums. “I feel once again a deep sadness for those many who lost their precious lives and for their families,” he said.