China hits out at Japan over ministers’ Yasukuni Shrine visits
- Beijing says the cabinet members’ actions reflect Tokyo’s ‘wrong attitude’ to its history of aggression
- Prime minister and emperor take a more low-key approach to mark 76th anniversary of Japan’s World War II defeat
In a statement on Sunday, China’s foreign ministry said Beijing expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” over what it called “the desecration of historical justice” by the Japanese officials.
“It also seriously harms the feelings of people of affected Asian countries, including China, and once again reflects Japan’s wrong attitude towards its own history of aggression,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
A number of Japanese cabinet members, including Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda, as well as former prime minister Shinzo Abe, paid what they said were personal respects at the shrine on Sunday, the 76th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II.
Two days earlier, two senior ministers in Suga’s cabinet, Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi and Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, made separate visits to Yasukuni, prompting criticism from the Chinese defence ministry.
The shrine commemorates 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals from
World War II, and is considered by wartime victims as a symbol of militarism.
Also at the ceremony, Emperor Naruhito, the grandson of emperor Hirohito who reigned during the war, expressed “deep remorse” over his country’s wartime actions.
Previous visits by Japanese officials and leaders to Yasukuni have angered Beijing and Seoul.
The Chinese embassy in Tokyo said on Sunday that the latest visits “once again reflect the wrong attitude of the Japanese side towards the history of aggression, and proves once again that there is always a countercurrent in Japan that tries to cover up and deny the crime of aggression”.
The Japanese government should reflect on its actions while “drawing a clear line between itself and militarism and taking practical action to win the trust of its Asian neighbours and the international community”, the embassy said.
Relations between two biggest economies in Asia, already complicated by the territorial disputes in the East China Sea and the wartime history, have been further strained over the past months by Tokyo’s increasingly vocal support for Washington’s efforts to rally its traditional allies and partners to confront China over a range of issues, from human rights, to Taiwan and regional security.
Last month in its annual defence white paper, Japan for the first time referred to the importance of the stability around Taiwan.
The Chinese foreign ministry hit back, saying China was engaging in a normal defence build-up and normal military activities.
