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Japanese PM Vows to Visit Yasukuni Shrine Even if Criticized
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday that he plans to visit Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, a controversial memorial to Japan's war dead, as premier even if it draws criticism from other countries, Kyodo News reported.
"I believe it is only a natural feeling" to want to make the visit to Yasukuni, Koizumi said in a House of Representatives Budget Committee session.
"Even now, I find it difficult to understand why one would have to cancel (a visit) because of criticism from outside," the new Japanese prime minister said.
Koizumi said last week he will make the visit on the August 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
Elected premier late last month, Koizumi pledged in his campaign for the presidency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that he would visit the memorial in an official capacity as premier, a job that comes with the LDP leadership.
The Yasukuni shrine, a bastion of the wartime government- sponsored Shintoism and symbol of militarism in Japan before and during World War II, houses the memorial tablets of 14 class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, and some 2.4 million Japanese military personnel and officials who have died since 1853 in Japan's various wars.
Japanese cabinet ministers' visits to the shrine are also controversial because Japan's postwar Constitution stipulates separation of the state and religion.
Visits to the shrine by Japan's public figures often draw criticism from other Asian countries which were invaded by Japanese forces before and during World War II.
Several Japanese cabinet ministers visit the shrine each year. While a number of prime ministers have made trips, only one, Yasuhiro Nakasone, described his August 15, 1985 visit as official.
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