BEIJING

China has expressed strong opposition to a visit early Friday by Japanese lawmakers to a shrine that pays tribute to the country’s war dead from World War II.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said in a press release: "China is deeply concerned with and firmly opposed to the negative trend related to the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan."

China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that over 100 Japanese lawmakers had visited the shrine during a four-day autumn festival, and that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had sent a "masakaki" tree as a ritual offering.

Stressing that relations between the two countries can only stabilize once Japan looks at its history and distances itself from militarism, Hong said: "We urge Japan to properly deal with the issues with a responsible attitude, honor its commitments on historical issues, and regain trust from its Asian neighbors and the international community through concrete actions.”

Abe himself has previously defended visiting sites like the Yasukuni Shrine as a way of promoting peace by ensuring the past is not forgotten.

The Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto - the indigenous faith of the Japanese people - shrine founded in the late 19th century to honor the approximate 2.5 million Japanese who died in various wars.

In 1978 the shrine’s priests secretly inducted 14 “Class-A” war criminals, including World War II leader Hideki Tojo, and about 1000 “Class B and C” criminals. 

Those convicted of Class-A crimes were accused of instigating and waging a war of aggression; the others of more conventional war crimes such as killing civilians or abusing prisoners.

The attached Yushukun war museum promotes an extreme nationalistic take on WWII, in which Japan's motives are depicted as being totally defensive and its actions designed to rid Asia of Western colonialism.

www.aa.com.tr/en