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TOKYO, June 4 Kyodo
Yasukuni Shrine will not remove ''traces'' of Class-A war criminals from its premises as it claims the results of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal that convicted them remain controversial, according to a written statement from the Shinto shrine.
''This is a matter of Japanese religious faith...Their separate enshrinement will never happen,'' the shrine said in the statement in response to questions from Kyodo News.
Yasukuni Shrine's flat rejection of a proposal to separately enshrine 14 Class-A war criminals -- including wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo -- from Japan's 2.5 million war dead came as Japan's ties with China and South Korea are tense due to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Tokyo shrine.
Other Asian countries see Yasukuni as symbolic of unrepentant Japanese nationalism and regard visits to it by Japanese government leaders as insensitive and insulting to them.
The statement attributed the shrine's rejection to ''lingering objections'' voiced by some international legal scholars to the validity of the results of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East after World War II.
It said the Diet unanimously adopted a resolution in 1953 denying the existence of ''war criminals'' in Japan in connection with World War II.
It said that as a result of revisions from 1953 to 1955 to the laws concerning the government's relief for families of the war dead, the government began treating war criminals and ordinary war dead alike.
Noting Nobusuke Kishi, once on the dock as a Class-A war criminal, became prime minister later, the statement said, ''There was no recognition of war criminals among the Japanese at all.''
In view of Japan's tense relationship with China and South Korea, some legislators of Koizumi's governing Liberal Democratic Party proposed removing ''traces'' of the Class-A war criminals from Yasukuni.
Among others, Hidenao Nakagawa, chairman of the LDP's Diet Affairs Committee, said last Sunday it is desirable that the Class-A war criminals be enshrined separately from the rest of the war dead through discussions between the shrine and families of the war dead.
Shingo Oyama, chief of Yasukuni Shrine's public relations office, said that although there were inquiries from the government and the LDP, the shrine has received no requests for the separate enshrinement of the Class-A war criminals.
Koizumi has visited the shrine once every year since taking office in April 2001. He last visited it on Jan. 1, 2004.
He has repeatedly said his visits are aimed at paying tribute to Japan's war dead, not to the Class-A war criminals, and has pledged that Japan will not wage war again.
China says words are insufficient to show Japan's atonement for various atrocities it committed during the war, and has urged Koizumi to show atonement through action.
Background and Context of Debate:
Yasukuni is a shrine in Tokyo that honors Japan's war dead. Among the over 2 million names indexed at the shrine are over a dozen Class A war criminals from World War II. Visits by prominent politicians to the shrine remain a major sticking point in relations between Japan and its neighbors, particularly South Korea and China. Yushukan, a military history museum on the shrine grounds also causes controversy for its allegedly revisionist views of World War II events and its lack of attention paid to comfort women, the occupation of Nanjing or the crimes of Manchukuo.
Yasukuni Shrine will not remove ''traces'' of Class-A war criminals from its premises as it claims the results of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal that convicted them remain controversial, according to a written statement from the Shinto shrine.
''This is a matter of Japanese religious faith...Their separate enshrinement will never happen,'' the shrine said in the statement in response to questions from Kyodo News.
Yasukuni Shrine's flat rejection of a proposal to separately enshrine 14 Class-A war criminals -- including wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo -- from Japan's 2.5 million war dead came as Japan's ties with China and South Korea are tense due to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Tokyo shrine.
Other Asian countries see Yasukuni as symbolic of unrepentant Japanese nationalism and regard visits to it by Japanese government leaders as insensitive and insulting to them.
The statement attributed the shrine's rejection to ''lingering objections'' voiced by some international legal scholars to the validity of the results of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East after World War II.
It said the Diet unanimously adopted a resolution in 1953 denying the existence of ''war criminals'' in Japan in connection with World War II.
It said that as a result of revisions from 1953 to 1955 to the laws concerning the government's relief for families of the war dead, the government began treating war criminals and ordinary war dead alike.
Noting Nobusuke Kishi, once on the dock as a Class-A war criminal, became prime minister later, the statement said, ''There was no recognition of war criminals among the Japanese at all.''
In view of Japan's tense relationship with China and South Korea, some legislators of Koizumi's governing Liberal Democratic Party proposed removing ''traces'' of the Class-A war criminals from Yasukuni.
Among others, Hidenao Nakagawa, chairman of the LDP's Diet Affairs Committee, said last Sunday it is desirable that the Class-A war criminals be enshrined separately from the rest of the war dead through discussions between the shrine and families of the war dead.
Shingo Oyama, chief of Yasukuni Shrine's public relations office, said that although there were inquiries from the government and the LDP, the shrine has received no requests for the separate enshrinement of the Class-A war criminals.
Koizumi has visited the shrine once every year since taking office in April 2001. He last visited it on Jan. 1, 2004.
He has repeatedly said his visits are aimed at paying tribute to Japan's war dead, not to the Class-A war criminals, and has pledged that Japan will not wage war again.
China says words are insufficient to show Japan's atonement for various atrocities it committed during the war, and has urged Koizumi to show atonement through action.
Background and Context of Debate:
Yasukuni is a shrine in Tokyo that honors Japan's war dead. Among the over 2 million names indexed at the shrine are over a dozen Class A war criminals from World War II. Visits by prominent politicians to the shrine remain a major sticking point in relations between Japan and its neighbors, particularly South Korea and China. Yushukan, a military history museum on the shrine grounds also causes controversy for its allegedly revisionist views of World War II events and its lack of attention paid to comfort women, the occupation of Nanjing or the crimes of Manchukuo.
