August 15, 2017

China and South Korea called on Japan to face up to its wartime past after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent an offering to a shrine to war dead on Tuesday (Aug 15),  the anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender.

Mr Masahiko Shibayama, a lawmaker who made the offering on Mr Abe’s behalf, said he did so to express condolences for those who died in the war and to pray for peace. He added that Mr Abe said he was sorry he could not visit the Yasukuni shrine.

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, sometimes chilling ties for months.

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http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/japans-pm-abe-sends-ritual-offering-to-yasukuni-shrine-for-war-dead