Spotlight: Yasukuni visits hamper Japan's efforts to regain trust

Lingering issues related to Japan's wartime past, particularly politicians' controversial visits to Yasukuni shine among many others, continue to irk the country's closest neighbors China and South Korea, with three Japanese cabinet ministers and 70 lawmakers paying homage to the war-linked shrine being the latest to fan the flames of discontent.

Minister in charge of creating an active society Katsunobu Kato and 70 lawmakers from a non-partisan group descended on Yasukuni shrine to pay their ill-advised tributes Tuesday at the Tokyo-based shrine which honors 14 Japanese convicted class-A WWII criminals, on the last day of its annual autumn festival.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refrained from visiting the controversial shrine, but made a ritual offering on Saturday and another two of his cabinet members, Justice Minister Mitsuhide Iwaki and Internal Affairs Minister Sanae Takaichi, paid homage on Sunday.

Hidehisa Otsuji, a lawmaker from Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who heads the non-partisan group, even suggested the prime minister should visit the shrine.

"(Abe) should think about visiting the shrine occasionally if he sends ritual offerings," the lawmaker was quoted by local media as saying.

Abe visited the shrine in December 2013 marking the first anniversary of his return to power and the move immediately prompted fierce criticism from China and South Korea, and the United States which is Japan's most important ally also expressed its disappointment over Abe's Yasukuni visit.

For years, visits to the Yasukuni by Japanese prime ministers and top government officials are considered as provocative moves by China and South Korea since those enshrined were culprits who were responsible for Japan's wartime barbarities that caused tremendous agony to the two countries.

Iwane Matsui, who is one of the 14 enshrined class-A war criminals, was one of those responsible for the heinous Nanjing Massacre in late 1937 when the then Japanese Imperial Army occupied the old capital city of China and slaughtered over 300,000 Chinese civilians and non-combatants.

However, those who worship at the shrine see the 2.5 million Japanese war dead honored there as the country's holy spirits, without considering the feelings of the countries victimized by Japan's wartime atrocities.

A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted earlier as saying that Abe's offering, as well as visits by Iwaki and Takaichi, are "tantamount to glorifying Japan's forcible colonization and war of aggression," adding that their moves ran contrary to the efforts of his country to improve its relations with Japan, including the upcoming trilateral summit between South Korea, China and Japan.

"Yasukuni Shrine honors Class-A convicted war criminals who were responsible for World War II. We have always opposed Japanese officials' wrong deeds related to the shrine," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

China demands Japan face up to its history and deeply reflect on its past aggression, make a clean break from militarism and regain trust from its neighbors and the international community with real action, she added.

Although the prime minister here said in his statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII that Japan has engraved in its heart the history of suffering of the Asian people at the hands of Japan, his Yasukuni offerings and government ministers' visits betray his words and have exposed his hypocrisy, while continuing to send confusing signals to neighbors China and South Korea. Enditem