China hopes that Japanese leaders will keep the promise to
reflect on history and avoid activities that cause offense in
countries that were victims of Japan’s wartime aggression, said
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan Wednesday.
The Fukuoka District Court in southern Japan ruled earlier
Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s controversial
visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in downtown Tokyo was religious in
nature and made in an official capacity, violating the division
between religion and state in Japan’s Constitution. Koizumi says
that he will continue to visit the shrine.
A group of 211 activists had filed a lawsuit demanding damages
of 21.1 million yen (US$200,000) for psychological stress. While
the court ruled that Koizumi’s four visits to the shrine since he
took office in 2001 amounted to an execution of duties by the prime
minister because he used a government chauffeured car and signed
the shrine’s registry book with his official title, it rejected the
damage claim.
The Yasukuni Shrine honors 14 Class-A war criminals from World
War II along with the 2.5 million Japanese who have died in wars
the mid-19th century.
Kong said that taking a proper attitude towards history concerns
the political basis of Sino-Japanese relations and is an important
condition for Japan to be trusted by Asia and the international
community.
(Xinhua News Agency and china.org.cn April 8, 2005)