Shrine visit stirs anger nationwide

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of Japan's past militarism, has stirred anger and protests from people across China and in other Asian countries.

The China-Japan Friendship Association issued a statement yesterday, expressing "outmost indignation."

The shrine is the "ideological prop and a tool of Japanese militarists during World War II. It still honours 14 war criminals whose hands were stained with the blood of the people in China and other countries," it said.

"Koizumi's act resurrects Japan's wartime militarism," the statement says.

More than 30 Chinese people gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing yesterday morning, protesting Koizumi's shrine visit for about 20 minutes.

In Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, She Ziqing, a 74-year-old survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, was outraged by Koizumi's visit.

"How can he feel no regret for the brutal deeds of Japanese militarists?" he asked.

At least 300,000 Chinese, most of them civilians, were slaughtered by Japanese troops in a six-week orgy of killing, raping, looting and burning in 1937 when the city, then the national capital, was overtaken.

Another survivor, Li Xiuying, 76, made a simple comment on Koizumi: "I hate him."

In Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, survivors of Japan's germ warfare were also "indignant."

Yang Dafang, whose father died as a result of Japanese germ warfare in 1940, said Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine have hurt the feelings of the Chinese victims.

During the war, the Japanese army's Unit 731 developed many biological weapons using plague, anthrax and other bacteria, and conducted experiments on humans.

In Hong Kong, angry activists took to the streets to condemn Koizumi's shrine visit.

At least 30 people marched to the Japanese consulate, carried banners and shouted slogans. They set a Japanese flag alight and demanded the country pay compensation and apologize for war crimes.

David Ko, chairman of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, said Koizumi's move aims to stir Chinese anger against Japan on the 61th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

"He just wanted to provoke Asian countries. He's about to step down but the spirit of Koizumi will not stop. That puts peace and safety in Northeast Asia under serious threat," Ko said.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and other countries yesterday also protested against Koizumi's shrine visit.

Source: China Daily/Xinhua