TOKYO, Jan. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- After plenty of attempts to justify the Japanese leader's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine where top war criminals are honored, here comes another try.

    This time, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso suggested that "a visit by the emperor would be the best."

    Aso's hope that visitors to the Yasukuni Shrine could "escalate" to include the emperor reflects his intention to glorify and legalize the aggression history.

    Under the Japanese constitution, the emperor represents the nation and all its people. Therefore, a visit by the emperor would be a national behavior, which would be a move to affirm the war past and mislead the whole country. The consequences would be nothing but severe.

    Late emperor Hirohito stopped visiting the Yasukuni Shrine after it started to enshrine top war criminals in 1978, and present Emperor Akihito has never made any visit there.

    "The reason why the emperor decided to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine," said the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP)leader, Mizuho Fukushima, is because he would not send "a bad political message", which "would affirm and glorify the aggressionwar."

    As a foreign minister, Aso's remarks are irresponsible. In making such a suggestion, he totally ignored the feelings of the Asian people who were victims of Japan's aggression war, as well as the serious diplomatic problems caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine.

    The rightist force in Japan has never ceased to glorify the aggression past and spread the militaristic historic ideology. Under that ideology, the aggression war was fought "to defend Japan" and "to liberate Asia". The war dead become "martyrs of theimperial cause".

    The Yasukuni Shrine has been closely connected with the Japanese militarism since the beginning of Japan's aggression war.Its influences as the symbol of militarism have not ceased after WWII, with 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined.

    It should always be remembered that the aggression war launchedby Japan has not only brought catastrophes to other parts of Asia,but also to its own people. Memories of the atomic bombs have not faded. A visit to the Yasukuni by Japanese leaders and politicianscan only be interpreted into an affirmation of the militarism ideology.

    The repeated visits to the Yasukuni by Prime Minister JunichiroKoizumi have already chilled Japan's relations with China and South Korea. If key political figures in Japan stick to their wrong stance on the war history, Japan's ties with its Asian neighbors would see little hope of improvement.

    The dangerous remarks made by Aso show that the Koizumi government is not attaching much importance to relations with neighboring countries, but is going farther away in glorification of the aggression war. Enditem