BEIJING, Aug 15 -- Just a day before Koizumi's visit to the shrine, hundreds of people from Japan, South Korea as well as Taiwan joined a rally, to protest against the Prime Minister's visit to a shrine which honors Japan's war dead.

    The protesters gathered in a part of Tokyo, forming large human letters that, together, read, "YASUKUNI NO".

    The elderly Mitsuko Kawai brought her own voice to the protest.

    72-year-old housewilf Mttsuko Kawai said:"Japan should compensate for war damage, otherwise it will be isolated from the Asian community."

    And it wasn't just the older generation that came to make their feelings clear. Many young faces were also present at the rally.

    15-year-old student Toya Haga said:"For Chinese and South Korean people, the Prime Minister's visits to Yasukuni show he approves of war-aggression."

    For people whose countries have suffered Japanese occupation and invasion, the visit sparked anger.

    South Korean lawmaker Kim Hee-sun said: "I can't consider the visit as something else than an insult to common sense and intelligence."

    The shrine honors 2.5 million of the country's war dead, including fifteen convicted war criminals. And many in Asia see it as a symbol of past Japanese militarism. Koizumi's visit is likely to provoke angry rebukes from Japan's neighbors, who still have memories of Japanese aggression. This, especially on a day when many in Asia celebrate the surrender of Japan which, for them, marked the end of World War Two.

(Source: CCTV.com)

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