Hyde concerned about Japan PM shrine visits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi’s visits to a controversial Tokyo war shrine raise
questions about his suitability to speak to the U.S. Congress,
a senior American lawmaker said.

Henry Hyde, chairman of the House of Representatives
Committee on International Relations, raised concerns about
Koizumi’s shrine visits in a letter to House Speaker Dennis
Hastert in late April, a spokesman for Hyde said on Monday.

“It is a letter in which the chairman does raise concerns
about the efficacy of an invitation to the Japanese prime
minister, who continues to make controversial visits to the
Yasukuni shrine,” said the spokesman.

The speaker’s office confirmed receiving the letter but had
no further comment on its contents or on a possible invitation
to Koizumi to address Congress when the Japanese leader visits
the United States in June.

The spokesman declined to discuss contents of the letter,
parts of which were published by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun
newspaper on Monday.

The Asahi quotes the letter from Hyde, an Illinois
Republican and World War Two veteran, as calling for assurances
from Koizumi the Japanese leader would not visit Yasukuni soon
after making a speech to a joint session of Congress during his
U.S. visit.

The shrine is seen in Asia as a symbol of Japanese
militarism because convicted war criminals are honored there
among Japan’s 2.5 million war dead. Koizumi has visited
Yasukuni each year since taking office in 2001.

According to the Asahi, Hyde warned that a visit to
Yasukuni would be an affront to older Americans who remember
World War Two and would dishonor the site in Congress where
President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his “day of infamy” speech
after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Hyde, who saw combat with the U.S. Navy in the Philippines,
has supported the U.S. alliance with Japan. Under Koizumi,
Japan has dispatched troops to Iraq and strengthened overall
security cooperation with the United States.

Last year, he voiced concerns about Koizumi’s Yasukuni
visits and his committee held a hearing on tensions in Japan’s
ties with China and South Korea over the shrine issue.