Japan’s former PM Shinzo Abe visits controversial Yasukuni Shrine for war dead
- The shrine is seen by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression as it honours wartime leaders convicted as war criminals
- Abe, who was replaced this week by Yoshihide Suga, had not been there since a 2013 pilgrimage prompted outrage
The shrine is seen by Beijing and Seoul as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression because it honours 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal as well as war dead.
Abe announced the visit on his official Twitter account along with a photo of himself at the shrine, just days after Yoshihide Suga succeeded him. Japan’s longest-serving leader announced his resignation in late August, citing health problems.
“Today, I paid my respects at the Yasukuni Shrine and reported to the spirits of the war dead my resignation as prime minister,” he tweeted.
His pilgrimage to the shrine in 2013 sparked outrage in South Korea and China and an expression of “disappointment” from the United States.
Suga, who was the chief government spokesman under Abe, was not among the Abe cabinet ministers who visited the shrine on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II on August 15.