TOKYO, Aug 13 (Xinhua) -- Civil groups from South Korea, Japan and China's Taiwan gathered here on Sunday, protesting against Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine visit, and demanding that Japan set up a correct view on its history of aggression against Asian countries.

    Kao Chin Su-Mei, a representative of Taiwan's aboriginal group, said this was her tenth trip to Japan with the unchanged demand that the Yasukuni Shrine "returns the spirits of ancestors of Taiwan' aboriginals," and the Japanese government stops sliding over its history of colonization in Taiwan.

    The Yasukuni Shrine, which glorifies Japan's history of aggression, has no right to honor Taiwan's aboriginals alongside the murderers who inflicted great atrocities in Taiwan, Kao said, adding that the shrine's combined enshrinement represents a rude violation of "the human rights, cultural rights and religious rights of the Taiwan aboriginals."

    "Only if the Japanese government set up a correct view on history, could Asia face a peaceful future," she (the lawmaker) added.

    South Korean lawmaker Kim Hee Sun criticized Japan for its refusal to reflect on wartime history.

    "Japan's honoring of the Class-A war criminals as the spirits of martyrs in the Yasukuni Shrine is a blaspheme of dignities of the peoples of Asian countries which have suffered from Japanese militarism," Kim said.

    Japanese civil group leaders criticized Koizumi for his repeated visits to the shrine, denouncing the prime minister's unwise action as a violation of Japan's pacifist Constitution which stipulates the principle of separating religion from state affairs.

    Japanese peace group members chided Koizumi for outlining a provocative intention of making another shrine visit and vowed to block him from doing so.

    Around 1,000 people held a candlelight procession, the third of the five beginning Friday, around the notorious shrine in the evening.

    Koizumi has paid five visits to the Yasukuni Shrine since taking office in 2001. He is reportedly planning to visit the shrine again around August 15.

    The shrine, which honors the country's 14 notorious class-A war criminals among 2 million war dead, has been at the center of a diplomatic row between Japan and its neighboring countries including China and South Korea, which suffered Japan's brutal aggression before and during World War II. Enditem