TOKYO, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The
Japan-China Friendship Association on Friday urged Japan's Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi to stop paying visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine
following the news that he has suggested going there on Aug. 15, a particularly
sensitive anniversary.
Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine had dragged
Sino-Japanese relations to their lowest level since they had normalized
diplomatic ties in the 1970s, the association said in a statement on Friday.
Koizumi said Wednesday that the pledge he had made to
visit the shrine on Aug. 15 was still "valid" and the promise should be
"honored."
The prime minister's possible visit to the shrine
that day -- the 61st anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II -- was
destined to further hurt the feelings of the peoples of China, South Korea and
all Asian countries that had suffered from the atrocities of Japanese
militarism, the statement read.
Such an action would arouse more distrust toward
Japan and isolate it further in Asia, it added.
The statement pointed out that the sentiment among
Japan's economic and political circles opposing the shrine visits had been on
the upsurge, a trend which was shown by a recent Yomiuri Shimbun daily poll, in
which more than half of the respondents were against the shrine visits by
Koizumi's successor.
The Yasukuni Shrine served as symbol of Japanese
militarism, and it even now glorifies the invasion as a war for "self-survival
and self-defense," and a war "inevitable for the realization of freedom and
equality," the friendship association said, adding that the prime minister's
visits violated the pledge made by Japan when it rejoined the international
community after the war, and represented an attempt to legitimize a disgraceful
stage in Japan's history.
The association made a strong appeal to Koizumi to
make a wise decision based on the spirit and principles of Japan's pacifist
Constitution, and to refrain from paying visits to the shrine at any time.
Since taking office in 2001, Koizumi has, in defiance
of strong protests from China and other Asian nations, visited the shrine for
five consecutive years, but never on Aug. 15.
The Yasukuni Shrine, honors more than 2 million Japanese war dead along with 14 of Japan's wartime leaders who were charged as Class-A war criminals. Enditem
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