At a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday that nations must face the facts of history, and his spokesman said there was no contradiction with his recent controversial visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.
The house, where the German-born Jewish girl kept a diary of her life in hiding before she was discovered and died in a Nazi concentration camp, is now one of the best-known memorials to the victims of the Holocaust, drawing more than a million visitors each year.
"The 20th century was characterized by war and by the violation of basic human rights. I want to ensure the same things do not happen in the 21st century, and I share responsibility to realize this goal," said Abe, who is in the Netherlands for a Group of Seven summit and a nuclear security meeting.
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