Enlarge imageBy Jonathan Standing
TOKYO (Reuters) - At least two Japanese cabinet ministers were set to mark the 60th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War Two on Monday with visits to a Tokyo shrine for war dead, pilgrimages all but certain to anger China and South Korea.
But in a nod to the emotive nature of the August 15 date, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was expected to refrain from paying his respects at Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honoured along with Japan’s 2.5 million war dead.
Sixty years after Japan’s late emperor Hirohito exhorted his subjects to "bear the unbearable" by accepting defeat, bitter memories of the war that killed millions in Asia and devastated Japan haunt ties between Tokyo and its Asian neighbours.
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Opinion polls also show the Japanese public is divided on whether Koizumi should keep visiting Yasukuni, seen by some as a solemn memorial to those who died for their country.
"Because my grandfather fought we have what we have now, I come every year to give thanks," said 16-year-old student Shotaro Ottata, wearing a rising sun headband.
Ottata said, however, that his mother opposed his visits.
"She says this place beautifies the war."
Children and adults mingled with elderly, dark suited veterans at the massive Yasukuni complex on Monday morning as police stood by, ready for possible clashes between right-wing groups and anti-Yasukuni demonstrators.
"I asked the spirits of the dead to lend their strength to give Japan a good future," said Mihoko Watanabe, 28, an employee of another shrine, said as she left Yasukuni.
"Lots of foreigners come here ... Even Chinese people come, so it’s strange isn’t it that Koizumi can’t come," she said.
Health Minister Hidehisa Otsuji and Environment Minister Yuriko Koike have said they plan to visit Yasukuni on Monday.
But a visit by Koizumi on August 15 would outrage China and South Korea, where many believe Japan has not owned up to its wartime atrocities despite repeated apologies by its leaders.
NO CONSENSUS
A pilgrimage to Yasukuni by the prime minister could also spark a fierce debate among the Japanese public ahead of a September 11 election that Koizumi has said he wants to make a referendum on his reform agenda.
Since taking office in 2001, Koizumi has made annual pilgrimages to the Shinto shrine, but he has yet to keep a pledge to do so on the anniversary of the war’s end.
The pledge was widely seen as an appeal to a powerful group of veterans and relatives of war dead for support in his successful bid to become prime minister.
Koizumi, who says he visits Yasukuni to mourn the war dead and pray for peace, last visited the shrine on January 1, 2004.
The domestic debate over Yasukuni mirrors a lack of consensus among Japanese over how to assess a war.
Forty-three percent of respondents to a weekend survey by Mainichi newspaper said Japan’s war against China and the United States was wrong, while 29 percent said it was unavoidable. Another 26 percent were undecided and 2 percent gave no reply.
Three-fourths said there has not been enough debate on responsibility for the conflict in Japan after the war.
Tokyo’s ties with Beijing and Seoul, already chilled by Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni, grew even frostier in April.
Virulent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and South Korea after Japan stepped up its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and approved textbooks by nationalist scholars for use in junior high schools.
(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano)
