Yasukuni Shrine makes fallacious claim on war criminals (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-06-25 19:57
The notorious Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday made fallacious claim that
the 14 World War II Class-A war criminals it enshrines are no longer war
criminals in Japan.
According to a written statement of the shrine in response to the interview
of Tokyo News, the Yasukuni Shrine doubted the just sentence on the war
criminals by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) after
the WWII, saying the IMTFE sentence is not unconditional correct.
"Japan has revised related laws to grant pension to families of those
convicted war criminals as well as the ordinary war dead, both are called the
dead of official duty," the shrine claimed. "In this term, the war criminals are
no longer regarded as criminals in Japan because the government never grants
pensions to criminals."
Yasukuni also rejected the call at home and abroad to establisha new national
memorial to separate enshrinement of the Class-A war criminals from the ordinary
war dead in the shrine, urging Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to continue his
Yasukuni visits.
Many Asian countries have strongly protested Japanese leaders' visits to the
Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the Class-A war criminals responsible for Japan's
aggression war against its Asianneighbors.
Koizumi has paid annual visits to the shrine since he took office in
2001.
|
| | Space shuttle Discovery launch delayed | | | | | Blair plans measures to uproot extremism | | | | | Pakistan train crash carnage kills 128 | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|