JAPAN | Abe sends prayer note to war criminal ceremony

Shinzo Abe (center)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a note earlier this year to a ceremony at a Buddhist temple honoring hundreds of World War II-era war criminals praising their contributions to the country, the government’s top spokesman said yesterday.
Abe sent the message to an annual ceremony held April 29 at the Koyasan temple in central Japan, but in his capacity as head of the ruling party, not as prime minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
“I humbly express my deepest sympathy for the martyrs … who sacrificed their souls to become the foundation of peace and prosperity in Japan today,” Abe wrote in his note, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press through the ceremony organizers’ office. “I hope for eternal peace and pledge to work toward a harmonious coexistence of mankind in the future.”
Many Asian countries that suffered from Japanese militarism in the first half of the 20th century see honoring war criminals as a lack of remorse by Tokyo over wartime aggression. The revelation of Abe’s note could especially worsen Japan’s ties with China and South Korea, which have repeatedly criticized Abe’s views on wartime history, widely seen as revisionist.
Abe’s message, written in traditional vertical text, was read out loud in front of about 220 people who attended the ceremony, according to Midori Nakatsuji at the organizers’ office. She said Abe also sent a similar message to last year’s memorial service.
The ceremony was held in front of a stone monument that honors about 1,180 Japanese war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 13 other executed leaders from the era.
The 14 “Class A” criminals, who are also honored at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, were convicted of crimes against peace and humanity by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, held in Tokyo by the allied forces after the war. Suga acknowledged that Japan has accepted the tribunal’s decisions, laid out in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, as the conditions for the country’s return to the international community.
Abe, however, has said that those convicted by the tribunal are not considered war criminals under domestic law. AP

Mari Yamaguchi, Tokyo