REUTERS
People queue to pray their ladder at Yasukuni Shrine on the 79th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II in Tokyo.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan marked the anniversary of its defeat in World War II on Thursday with at least three cabinet ministers visiting the disputed Yasukuni Shrine, which other Asian countries see as a display of the country’s wartime aggression. .
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, Minister of Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Yasutaka Shindo, the head of economic revitalization, met in Tokyo, the capital.
Fourteen convicted war criminals, including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, are among the 2. 5 million war dead venerated at the shrine.
“I would like to express my deepest condolences to all those who sacrificed their precious lives and show them my deepest respect,” Kihara said at the shrine, in comments broadcast on television.
The visits are the first through senior government officials since Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol agreed with U. S. President Joe Biden to strengthen security ties.
“I perceive that everyone visited the shrine in their personal capacity and it is up to the government to comment,” Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a regular news conference.
“It is natural for any country to pay tribute to those who gave their lives for their country. “
South Korea, a Japanese colony for 35 years, and China, invaded through Japan, see the sanctuary as a magnet for conservatives who seek to disguise their neighbors’ wartime actions.
“Our government urges guilty Japanese leaders to face history and show a mirror image of humility and true introspection,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
“This is a basis for the progress of relations with a view to the future,” he added in a statement.
Proponents of Yasukuni, created in 1869 when Japan emerged from more than two centuries of isolation, say it commemorates all those who died in the war and not just those accused of waging war against their neighbors.
Kishida, who plans to resign in September, stayed away and sent an offer, Japanese media reported.
Takaichi is one of a dozen people touted as his successor imaginable.
No sitting Japanese prime minister has uttered Yasukuni, which means “peaceful country” in Japanese, since Shinzo Abe in 2013, prompting an expression of sadness in the then-United States. President Barack Obama.