Yasukuni visit threat to regional peace —China

In a statement from the Chinese embassy in Abuja yesterday, it said the Japanese leader disregarded strong opposition from China and other parties to pay homage to the Shrine where Class-A war criminals of World war II are honoured. “Abe’s action is leading Japan down an extremely dangerous path and has gravely undermined regional peace and […]

In a statement from the Chinese embassy in Abuja yesterday, it said the Japanese leader disregarded strong opposition from China and other parties to pay homage to the Shrine where Class-A war criminals of World war II are honoured.
 “Abe’s action is leading Japan down an extremely dangerous path and has gravely undermined regional peace and stability, hence the strong opposition and condemnation from its Asian neighbors and the international community,” the statement added.
According to the statement which represented China’s official standpoint on the issue and released by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japanese Prime Minister’s action is a brazen challenge to all the victimized peoples in the Japanese militarist war of aggression and to the outcome of World War II and the post-war order.
The statement expressed concern that by “paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine as Japanese Prime Minister, Abe is seeking to clear the name of the criminals of the war of aggression.”
It said this has fully “exposed his [Abe] right-wing nature and spoken to the fact that today, nearly 70 years after the end of World War II, Japan still fails to correctly understand and treat its past aggression.”
As a result, the statement said “this is an attempt to overturn the just trial of Japanese militarism by the international community after the war and challenge the outcome of World War II and the post-war international order.”
The statement pointed out that the “Yasukuni Shrine was the spiritual instrument and symbol of Japanese militarism in its war of aggression is ‘justified’ and honors 14 Class-A war criminals of World War II as ‘heroes’, doing its utmost to trumpet the militarist view of history.”
The statement said only with a right approach to the past can the future be embraced adding that the war of aggression against China waged by militarist Japan inflicted untold calamities on the Chinese people.
It said the Japanese army committed the Nanjing Massacre and many other heinous atrocities which China suffered as many as 35 million casualties and $600 billion in direct and indirect losses during the war.
The statement noted that China is willing to develop normal ties of good neighborliness and friendship with the Japanese people pointing out that when both countries normalised their diplomatic ties in 1972, the Chinese leadership sought not to seek war reparations from Japan.