Yasukuni Shrine honours millions of mostly Japanese war dead, but is contentious for also enshrining senior military and political figures convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of Japan’s second world war surrender, but did not visit in person, an apparent effort to avoid upsetting China and South Korea.
Past visits by Japanese leaders to Yasukuni have outraged Beijing and Seoul because it honours 14 Japanese leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal as war criminals, along with other war dead.
Abe’s move comes amid heightened tensions in Asia in the wake of North Korean missile tests, threats from Pyongyang to strike the area around the US Pacific territory of Guam and US President Donald Trump warning of “fire and fury” if North Korea threatened the United States.
Masahiko Shibayama, a lawmaker from Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters at the shrine that he had made an offering on Abe’s behalf to express condolences to those who sacrificed their lives in the war and pray for peace.
Asked for specific words from Abe, Shibayama added: “He said he was sorry he couldn’ t go himself and asked me to go express these feelings in his place”.
