TOKYO: Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday prayed at a shrine honouring war dead and war criminals on the emotionally charged anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat, triggering outrage among neighbours which suffered brutal occupation.
Koizumi, who steps down next month, became the first prime minister in 21 years to visit the Yasukuni shrine on August 15, when veterans and nationalists congregate at the site associated with Japan's militaristic past. Under light rain that intensified as he arrived, Koizumi, wearing a tuxedo jacket with coat-tails and a tie, prayed for 10 minutes inside the shrine in central Tokyo. He was escorted by a Shinto priest in a white and yellow robe.
China and South Korea summoned Japanese ambassadors to protest. But Koizumi, who has built a steadily more assertive Japan during his five-year tenure, promptly hit back that their criticism was 'immature.' "People criticizing me are telling me not to do anything to annoy China and South Korea. But I don't think that's necessarily right," Koizumi told reporters.
"If Bush of the United States tells me not to go, would I stop? No, I would still go even then. But President Bush would not say anything so immature," said Koizumi, one of George W. Bush's closest foreign allies.
The Yasukuni war shrine, which honours 2.5 million war dead and 14 top war criminals from World War II was a spiritual pillar during the war. Kamikaze suicide pilots would tell one another, "See you at Yasukuni".
Koizumi has visited the shrine once a year since taking office in 2001, but he has never visited it on August 15, the date when Emperor Hirohito surrendered in 1945.
China immediately lodged a strong protest over his pilgrimage, with the foreign ministry saying the visit "challenges international justice and tramples the conscience of mankind".
Several dozen Chinese nationalists also rallied outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing. South Korea expressed "deep disappointment and anger" over Koizumi's pilgrimage.
Taiwan and Singapore, which were also occupied by Japan, offered milder criticism and there were public protests in Malaysia and Hong Kong.
