Six decades after Japan's surrender in World War II, hundreds of
protestors gathered Monday in Tokyo to demand Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi stop visiting the city's war-related Yasukuni
Shrine in consideration of the feelings of other Asian countries
that suffered from Japan's aggression.
At a conference sponsored by a group of bereaved families at the
Japan Education Center in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, they also called
for world peace and the salvage of Japan's pacifist postwar
Constitution.
The protestors blasted some Japanese lawmakers for visiting the
Yasukuni shrine, which honors 14 notorious Class-A WWII war
criminals responsible for Japan's aggression against its Asian
neighbors.
Those lawmakers have violated the Constitution that stipulates
the separation of religion and the state, the protestors charged.
"Article 20 of the Constitution clearly stipulates the separation
of religion and the state," said Shigenori Nishikawa, 77, head of
the National Association of the War Bereaved Families for Peace. He
lost his elder brother in the war.
"And not only the prime minister and emperor but all public
servants are obliged to respect and protect our Constitution. At
the time of the 60th anniversary, we renew our resolve to have
Japan strive for peaceful and friendly relations with other Asian
countries," Nishikawa told the gathering.
Protestors then took to the streets in the vicinity of Yasukuni
to voice their strong opposition to visits to the shrine. They had
previously planned to get closer to the shrine, but were blocked by
police who asked them not to do so for fear of possible
confrontations with rightist activists, officials of the
association said.
Still, there were more than 100 participants walking through the
sensitive area, urging Koizumi to stop visiting the Yasukuni
Shrine. Police were positioned at the scene preventing propaganda
trucks of rightist groups from approaching the demonstrators. "Our
young people need more study about our history. I hope Japan will
be a country with many youths who can see things from global points
of view," said Katsuko Suhako, one of the participants.
Meanwhile, at the secular Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery in
Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward where unidentified war dead are buried, about
250 people, including parliamentarians from opposition parties,
expressed the determination never to forget Japan's responsibility
for the war.
"On the day of the 60th anniversary, what we have to do for the
world, especially for the Asian people, is to admit our
responsibility as the victimizer ... and to show our resolution not
to wage a war again," Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social
Democratic Party, told a mass rally at the cemetery.
Koizumi refrained from visiting the shrine on Monday, the 60th
anniversary of Japan's surrender. Instead, he visited the cemetery
in the morning.
Koizumi last visited the shrine on Jan. 1, 2004. He has visited
Yasukuni four times since taking office in April 2001, sparking
criticism each time from both Japan and the neighboring
countries.
A 69-year-old woman from Tokyo's Minato Ward visited the
cemetery for the first time with her family members, saying she
wanted to teach her two grandchildren about Japan's wartime
atrocities.
"I understand Asian countries feel about the Yasukuni Shrine as
the symbol of militarism because I myself had that feeling through
the education I received during wartime. I think Prime Minister
Koizumi is sticking to the past by visiting the shrine. This just
makes the problem drag on," she said.
Bereaved relatives also visited the cemetery, many wearing
mourning dress. Among them was Sato Yatabe, 63, from Tokyo's Meguro
Ward who lost her father in the war when he was in his 30s.
Shinsuke Watanabe, 26, said, "To our generation, the country's
aggression war is history, and I think we need to exchange opinions
with other young Asians to understand this history from an
objective viewpoint."
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2005)
