Posted on Aug 16, 2016
Japan's Abe avoids controversial shrine as he marks World War II's end
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TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stayed away Monday from a Tokyo shrine that honors convicted war criminals among the nation's war dead, a bid to avoid controversy with neighboring countries on the 71st anniversary of the end of World War II.
Abe instead sent a gift of money and religious ornaments to Yasukuni Shrine. His visit to the shrine in December 2013 drew sharp rebukes from China and South Korea, which see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism and consider the visits an attempt to whitewash the country's wartime aggression.
Abe's government is reportedly trying to arrange a meeting between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G-20 summit in China next month.
At an official memorial ceremony later Monday, Abe reiterated his pledge not to let the tragedy of war be repeated, but neither mentioned Japan's wartime actions in Asia nor apologized to its victims.
He also did not do so in his three previous speeches at the annual event, though he did touch on some of Japan's wartime actions last year during a speech in Washington and in a separate statement for the 70th anniversary of the war's end.
Emperor Akihito reiterated his "feelings of deep remorse," a phrase he used last year for the first time, capturing media attention because of the contrast between his words and Abe's.
Akihito, 82, spoke after observing a moment of silence in his first public appearance outside the palace since he indicated his wish to abdicate in a video message last week.
Abe also visited the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for unidentified soldiers on his way to the memorial ceremony at the nearby Budokan hall.
In a sign of lingering bitter feelings in Asia over Japan's wartime actions, a group of South Korean lawmakers picked the day to land on small disputed islands in the Sea of Japan to celebrate their country's liberation from Japanese colonization. The islands are controlled by South Korea but also claimed by Tokyo.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reiterated Japan's claim to the islands and said the lawmakers' action was "unacceptable and extremely regrettable." He said Tokyo had protested to Seoul.
In Nanjing, China, Chinese and South Korea representatives gathered at a memorial hall for victims of Japan's notorious 1937 Nanking Massacre to commemorate victory in what China calls the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
There was mixed reaction in South Korea, where President Park Geun-hye focused on future relations with Japan, while the Foreign Ministry expressed "deep concerns and regret" over visits to Yasukuni by others in Abe's government.
At least four Cabinet ministers have visited Yasukuni since early August, two of them on Monday.
Abe's special aide Yasutoshi Nishimura, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, told reporters that he offered a donation from Abe to the shrine along with the religious ornaments and prayed on his behalf.
Hidehisa Otsuji, head of a group of lawmakers from various parties who routinely visit Yasukuni, told reporters that Abe's absence would be understood by the war dead "if it's a judgment based on national interest."
Separately, a group of conservative members of parliament chaired by Tomomi Inada, a recently appointed defense minister known for downplaying Japan's wartime atrocities, also visited the shrine.
Inada is a regular at Yasukuni during ceremonial occasions but is currently out of the country.
Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Chris Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.
Abe instead sent a gift of money and religious ornaments to Yasukuni Shrine. His visit to the shrine in December 2013 drew sharp rebukes from China and South Korea, which see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism and consider the visits an attempt to whitewash the country's wartime aggression.
Abe's government is reportedly trying to arrange a meeting between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G-20 summit in China next month.
At an official memorial ceremony later Monday, Abe reiterated his pledge not to let the tragedy of war be repeated, but neither mentioned Japan's wartime actions in Asia nor apologized to its victims.
He also did not do so in his three previous speeches at the annual event, though he did touch on some of Japan's wartime actions last year during a speech in Washington and in a separate statement for the 70th anniversary of the war's end.
Emperor Akihito reiterated his "feelings of deep remorse," a phrase he used last year for the first time, capturing media attention because of the contrast between his words and Abe's.
Akihito, 82, spoke after observing a moment of silence in his first public appearance outside the palace since he indicated his wish to abdicate in a video message last week.
Abe also visited the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for unidentified soldiers on his way to the memorial ceremony at the nearby Budokan hall.
In a sign of lingering bitter feelings in Asia over Japan's wartime actions, a group of South Korean lawmakers picked the day to land on small disputed islands in the Sea of Japan to celebrate their country's liberation from Japanese colonization. The islands are controlled by South Korea but also claimed by Tokyo.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reiterated Japan's claim to the islands and said the lawmakers' action was "unacceptable and extremely regrettable." He said Tokyo had protested to Seoul.
In Nanjing, China, Chinese and South Korea representatives gathered at a memorial hall for victims of Japan's notorious 1937 Nanking Massacre to commemorate victory in what China calls the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
There was mixed reaction in South Korea, where President Park Geun-hye focused on future relations with Japan, while the Foreign Ministry expressed "deep concerns and regret" over visits to Yasukuni by others in Abe's government.
At least four Cabinet ministers have visited Yasukuni since early August, two of them on Monday.
Abe's special aide Yasutoshi Nishimura, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, told reporters that he offered a donation from Abe to the shrine along with the religious ornaments and prayed on his behalf.
Hidehisa Otsuji, head of a group of lawmakers from various parties who routinely visit Yasukuni, told reporters that Abe's absence would be understood by the war dead "if it's a judgment based on national interest."
Separately, a group of conservative members of parliament chaired by Tomomi Inada, a recently appointed defense minister known for downplaying Japan's wartime atrocities, also visited the shrine.
Inada is a regular at Yasukuni during ceremonial occasions but is currently out of the country.
Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Chris Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.
Japan's Abe avoids controversial shrine as he marks World War II's end
Posted from armytimes.comPosted in these groups: 
Japan
WWII World War Two
Japan WWII World War Two
Posted >1 y ago
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Saving Face and Honor the Dead... respect History and The past... and learn from the mistakes...
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That is interesting news that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stayed away Monday from a Tokyo shrine that honors convicted war criminals among the nation's war dead SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
I hope that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stayed away from the shrine because of what it stands for.
I hope that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stayed away from the shrine because of what it stands for.
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Sigh...that whole thing's been going on for over seven decades now...I mean, you'd figure it's time to just give it up already, you know? It runs very, very deep over there...somehow, some way, they're just positively determined to try to recoup some level of dignity out of their whole horrid debacle. The point is, they can't, and they know it perfectly well...history long ago rendered it's verdict on that whole sordid mess, both in Europe, as well as in the Pacific. They know perfectly well what that shrine represents...it's their sop to ego, pure and simple, they want it, they need it, and they just don't want to give it up, case closed. I've read all about the rape of Nanking, the whole thing about the "comfort women", incl and most especially those in Korea, about the Bataan death march, about all the horrors recounted in the film The Last Emperor about Pu Yi, the whole Manchukuo puppet state and emperor thing, and that whole SE Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere drivel being spewed out during that period. I've watched all the propaganda films, I've tried to read widely about all the sea battles in the Pacific, and I've just simply reached what I deem an inescapable conclusion that their entire society is quite simply in total denial. What they did is, in no small measure, at least to my way of thinking, largely responsible for there being a communist China today, that's not to say that the corruption of Chiang kai shek and Madame Chiang didn't contribute to their defeat and exile to Taiwan, however, what Japan did certainly added fuel to that whole fire, by all means. And, China has a really, really long cultural memory of the horror Japan unleashed, especially on China, and has very definitely never forgiven, or forgotten, all that Japan did. That whole thing with China, and those artificial islands in the South China Sea going on now, apart from the drive to maturity stage that cjphina is in socioeconomically now, is also due, in no small part, as a first order ripple effect stemming from the mass cultural psychosis induced in communist China, directly stemming from, that Japanese aggression, and virtually any notion on the part of Japan that such is not the case is merely purest delusionary fantasy, in my view. Fascism had to be burned out of Japan, as it was in Germany, and Italy, at terrible, terrible cost, and one would only wish that, as Germany has now, thankfully, that Japan would just finally give it a rest, and just give it all up, you know? If one reads about the stories of the Japanese holdouts on Pacific islands for decades sometimes after ww2 ended, and their having been welcomed back as national heroes, one can very clearly perceive that that country has a long, long way to go to finally come to grips psychologically, with that whole thing, as the cultural nightmare and sociologic psychosis that it actually was, a long, long, long way...I hope this was of of at least some interest, I'd be eager for any thoughts, by all means, whenever convenient, many thanks.
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