Japan PM to avoid war shrine on WW II anniversary

Tokyo, August 15 : Japan marked the 63rd anniversary of its surrender in World War Two on Friday, but Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was expected to avoid visiting a shrine for war dead, which is seen by Asian neighbours as a symbol of Tokyo’s past militarism. However, former prime ministers Shinzo Abe and Junichiro Koizumi and two current cabinet ministers were among those who paid their respects at Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo on the occasion. The shrine honors Japanese World War Two leaders convicted as war criminals, along with 2.5 million war dead.

Past visits to the shrine by Japanese leaders have divided opinion at home and angered countries that suffered under Japan’s military aggression in the early 20th century. A mixed mass of former soldiers, relatives of the war dead dressed in mourning attire, young couples and right-wing activists in military uniforms flocked to the shrine in the summer heat.

“I am here to honor the spirits of the dead because I want to thank those who worked for the nation,” said 82-year-old Seiichi Suzuki, a former soldier who served on a destroyer during the war. “I see no need for Fukuda to visit,” he said. But not everybody was pleased by the 72-year-old premier’s decision to stay away, and activists blasted messages from loudspeakers criticising Fukuda.

Fukuda, a moderate conservative who stresses good ties with Asian countries, had made it clear when he took office last September that he would not visit the shrine.

“Our country has inflicted great pain on many nations, especially those in Asia. On behalf of the Japanese people, I express my condolences and deep regret to all the victims,” Fukuda said at the ceremony. “I pledge that we will renew our commitment not to fight war and that we will lead the international community as a peace cooperating nation to actively establish lasting peace in the world.”

Some 6,000 people who attended the ceremony observed a minute’s silence for the war dead at noon. But debate over visits to Yasukuni has been muted ahead of this year’s anniversary, as policy-makers and voters focus more on Japan’s faltering economy and consumers’ worries about rising prices than questions of national pride and wartime history.