Japan PM says should keep war shrine promise

By Isabel Reynolds

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japanese prime minister said on
Wednesday he should keep a promise to visit a Tokyo shrine for
war dead on the August 15 anniversary of Japan’s World War Two
surrender, a move likely to outrage China and the two Koreas.

Junichiro Koizumi’s comments came shortly after South
Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon lamented that Tokyo and
Seoul were at odds over history and urged Chief Cabinet
Secretary Shinzo Abe, Koizumi’s heir apparent, to play a role
in resolving the problem.

Many in Asia see the Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of Japan’s
past militarism. Fourteen Japanese wartime leaders convicted by
an Allied tribunal as “Class A” war criminals are honored
there, along with nearly 2.5 million war dead.

Koizumi said on Wednesday that his five-year-old pledge to
visit the Shinto shrine on August 15 should be kept.

“Whatever they are about, pledges should be kept, shouldn’t
they?” Koizumi told reporters in Nagasaki, where he attended a
ceremony marking the 61st anniversary of the atomic bomb attack
on that city.

Koizumi promised during his successful campaign to become
ruling party chief in 2001 that he would visit Yasukuni on
August 15. He has visited every year since then, but never on
that date.

A pilgrimage on the emotive anniversary could worsen
already fraught ties with China and South Korea, where many
suffered under Japan’s wartime aggression.

“I think it is unfortunate that our two countries are in a
difficult situation over the recent history problem,” South
Korea’s Ban told reporters after a meeting with Abe in Tokyo.

“I asked Mr Abe to bear the problem particularly in mind
and play a part,” Ban added.

Abe, widely seen as the certain winner of a September 20
election to succeed Koizumi as ruling party leader and hence
prime minister, told a news conference later he had told Ban
that Japan must be honest about history and resolve any
misunderstandings.

DOMESTIC DEBATE

The Yasukuni issue has become a focus of the leadership
race.

On Tuesday Foreign Minister Taro Aso, trailing in second
place, unveiled a proposal to make the shrine a non-religious
monument. Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, another
dark-horse candidate, has said he would not visit the shrine if
elected.

Media reports said last week that Abe visited Yasukuni
secretly in April, but he has repeatedly refused to confirm or
deny the visit or to say whether he would make such pilgrimages
if he became prime minister.

The fact that Abe wants to keep his shrine visits private
shows a flexible attitude, the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said
in an editorial on Wednesday.

“Mr Abe holds far stronger beliefs about Yasukuni than
Prime Minister Koizumi, but his actions show more flexibility
than those of Koizumi, who announces his visits,” the paper
said.

China was likely to react strongly should Koizumi go ahead
with a shrine visit next week, analysts said.

“There is going to be lots of theatrics, especially if
Koizumi chooses to go in a high profile way,” said Phil Deans,
professor of International Affairs at Temple University, Japan
campus.

“The question is, will it snowball or can they keep a lid
on it?,” Deans said.

The shrine divides domestic opinion as well as irritating
Japan’s neighbors.

A Yomiuri Shimbun poll published on Wednesday showed 50
percent of respondents opposed Yasukuni visits by the next
prime minister, while 40 percent said they would support such
visits.

(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno)