Shii: P.M. Koizumi's deliberate third offense is intolerable

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on January 14 criticized Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro for visiting Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's war shrine:

Before and during the Second World War, Yasukuni Shrine was a symbol of Japan waging its war of aggression and of the underlying militarism. In the postwar years, the shrine has used exhibitions and events to show that Japan fought a just war.

A visit to this shrine, for whatever reason and regardless of timing, should be taken as an act commending the war of aggression. We protest the visit as unacceptable.

This is Prime Minister Koizumi's third visit to Yasukuni Shrine, the previous visits being in August 2001 and April 2002. Koizumi is the first prime minister to visit the shrine for three straight years; the shrine is notorious for having Class-A war criminals enshrined together.

It is a deliberate offense for the prime minister to visit this shrine for the third time, in defiance of fierce criticisms inside and outside Japan, questioning if the Japanese prime minister regards the war of aggression as just.

The suspicion is that his repeated visits to the shrine are based on calculations that the practice will be accepted as a fait accompli.

The countries which suffered greatly from Japan's war of aggression and colonial rule will take the prime minister's visit to the war shrine as a signal that Japan still lacks self-criticism of the war of aggression. The visit is sheer arrogance. (end)