Vow never to repeat ‘the horrors of war’
TOKYO: Prime Minster Fumio Kishida vowed on the anniversary of Japan’s World War 2 surrender yesterday his country would never again wage war, as members of his cabinet visited a shrine that honours war dead, angering South Korea and China.
Japan’s ties with China were already strained after China conducted unprecedented military exercises around Taiwan following the visit there by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi this month.
During the drills, several missiles fell in waters inside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
‘‘We will never again repeat the horrors of war. I will continue to live up to this determined oath,’’ Kishida told a secular gathering in Tokyo, also attended by Emperor Naruhito.
‘‘In a world where conflicts are still unabated, Japan is a proactive leader in peace,’’ he said.
The anniversary of Japan’s surrender is traditionally also marked by visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which is seen by South Korea and China as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.
Yasukuni honours 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals, who are among some 2.5 million war dead commemorated there.
Visits by Japanese leaders to the shrine infuriate neighbours that suffered at the hands of Japan before and during World War 2.
Kishida, on the dovish side of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, faced a tricky balancing act, hoping to avoid irking neighbours while keeping happy the more rightwing members of the party, particularly after the killing of former premier Shinzo Abe last month.
Kishida sent an offering to the shrine without visiting, Kyodo news agency reported, as he did during recent festivals at the shrine.
But unlike his predecessor
Yoshihide Suga, and Abe in 2020, Kishida made an oblique reference to Japan’s wartime actions, saying ‘‘the lessons of history are graven deeply on our hearts’’.
Despite that, South Korea and China denounced the visits to the shrine.
In South Korea, officials expressed ‘‘deep disappointment’’ and regret.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wengbin said Japan needed to deeply reflect on its history.
‘‘Some Japanese political figures frequently distort and glorify the history of aggression in various ways,’’ he told a briefing. — Reuters