TOKYO — In what has become a familiar ritual for conservative politicians here, dozens of lawmakers on Tuesday visited a shrine to Japan’s war dead that is regarded by neighboring countries as glorifying the country’s militarist past.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stayed away from the Yasukuni Shrine, however, in an apparent concession to sensitivities in China and South Korea, where resentment over Japan’s imperial expansionism during World War II and the preceding decades remains acute.
A visit by the prime minister to the shrine, which is celebrating its autumn festival, would have jeopardized a three-way meeting among high-ranking leaders from Japan, China and South Korea that is planned for next month in Seoul. But Mr. Abe sent a ritual offering of evergreen branches to the shrine on Saturday, and three members of his cabinet visited in person — gestures that were enough to draw rebukes from Beijing and Seoul.
“We urge Japan to face up to and deeply reflect on the history of militarism,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said at a news briefing on Sunday. A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the offering and the cabinet ministers’ visits were “tantamount to glorifying Japan’s forcible colonization and war of aggression.”
Here is a look at major statements on Japan’s war legacy by monarchs and senior officials since its defeat in 1945.
In spite of the criticism, and the additional visits to the shrine by lawmakers on Monday, all signs were that the summit meeting in Seoul, the product of months of painstaking diplomatic negotiations, would proceed as planned.
Yasukuni is disliked by many Japanese liberals as well as the country’s former colonies and wartime foes. It honors World War II leaders who were hanged by the Allies as war criminals, along with millions of ordinary soldiers and sailors. Its history museum, run by a conservative private foundation, trumpets a revisionist view of history in which Japan was bullied into war by the United States and fought to liberate Asia from Western colonialism.
The shrine attracts conservative politicians, as well as thousands of ordinary Japanese, to several festivals and war-related anniversaries each year. Mr. Abe has stayed away since a visit in December 2013 drew angry responses from Beijing and Seoul, as well as an unusual expression of displeasure from Washington. The Obama administration has been eager to see Japan mend fences with South Korea, in particular, because both countries are crucial American allies in Asia.
According to accounts by several Japanese news outlets, more than 70 members of a lawmakers’ group dedicated to supporting Yasukuni visited the shrine on Tuesday, the final day of the four-day festival. The number was equivalent to about 10 percent of the combined membership of the upper and lower houses of Parliament. Most of the lawmakers were from Mr. Abe’s conservative party, the Liberal Democrats.