China summoned Japan’s ambassador on Thursday to lodge a strong complaint after two Japanese cabinet ministers publicly paid their respects at a controversial Tokyo shrine for war dead, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
Their visit to the Yasukuni Shrine “seriously harms the feelings of the people in China and other Asian victim countries”, the ministry said in a statement.
The two Japanese ministers were among dozens of lawmakers who visited a war shrine on Thursday in a move sure to anger China and South Korea, which see it as a potent symbol of Tokyo’s imperialist past.
[Their visit to the Yasukuni Shrine] seriously harms the feelings of the people in China and other Asian victim countries
Security was tight with hundreds of police surrounding the leafy Yasukuni shrine in the heart of Tokyo, as right-wing nationalists carried flags calling on visitors to pray for Japan’s “heroic war dead” on the anniversary of the country’s surrender in the second world war.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering, but did not visit in person in an effort to avoid inflaming tensions with Asian neighbours.
Koichi Hagiuda, an executive of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters that Abe had sent the offering in his capacity as ruling party leader to pay his respects to the war dead and wanted to apologise for not going in person.
Yasukuni honours 2.5 million citizens who died in the second world war and other conflicts, including 14 top convicted war criminals such as General Hideki Tojo, who authorised the attack on Pearl Harbour which drew the United States into the war.