Chinese netizens said they are getting tired of criticizing visits by Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead in World War II, including 14 Class-A convicted war criminals.
Xinhua News Agency reported that a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada returned from their trip to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Inada visited the shrine in Tokyo on Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Thursday that China is firmly opposed to the visit to the Yasukuni Shrine by Tomomi Inada, and China will make solemn representations to Japan.
“We once again urge Japanese leaders to listen to the voice of justice within Japan and the international community,” Hua said.
The reaction from Chinese webusers showed that many Chinese are tired on Japanese politicians’ provocative behaviors. “We don’t even remember which Japanese prime minister didn’t visit the shrine,” a Net user said, while another said “Why should we still expect the Japanese government to change its view of history as Germany did in Europe? It’s totally hopeless because they are shameless!”
Inada said she wrote "Defense Minister Tomomi Inada" in the visitor's log, claiming she went there as "a citizen of this country." This was Inada's first visit to the shrine since she joined Abe's cabinet in August. Her visit to Djibouti in August prevented her from visiting the shrine on the 71st anniversary of the end of World War II on August 15, Xinhua reported.
The shrine, which honors 14 Class-A convicted war criminals among 2.5 million Japanese war dead from the WWII, is regarded as a symbol of past Japanese militarism.
“We have no problem with Japanese people and politicians grieving over their war dead, because most Japanese people and soldiers are also victims of the war. The real criminals are the war criminals, but I just don’t understand why the Japanese government refuses to remove Class-A convicted war criminals from the shrine,” A Net user said on , a Chinese news website.
Inada, known as a close Abe ally who supports revising Japan's pacifist constitution, regularly visited the shrine on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II before assuming the post of defense minister, Xinhua reported.
The Japanese government called Abe's visit to Pearl Harbor a tour of reconciliation. However, except to offer his "sincere and everlasting condolences" to the souls of Americans killed by troops of the Japanese imperial empire, he failed to issue an apology.
As many as 2,403 Americans were killed, 20 U.S. ships were sunk or damaged and over 300 U.S. aircraft were damaged or destroyed when more than 350 Japanese warplanes launched surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941.
Japan's Asian neighbors, especially China and South Korea, have called on Abe to visit places in Asia which suffered heavily from Japan's barbaric militarism during the war.
