Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in April inflamed Beijing, casting a chill on Japan-China relations. The row forced Koizumi to cancel a visit to Beijing he had planned for this fall to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China diplomatic relations. The two nations are no longer in a celebratory mood.
I went to the shrine on Aug. 15, the anniversary of the end of World War II. There I was astounded by noisy demonstrations being staged by pro-Yasukuni groups denouncing reported recommendations by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's advisory panel to create a new national war memorial that would serve as an alternative to Yasukuni.
Pro-Yasukuni forces claim the establishment of a new memorial would diminish the importance of Yasukuni as the spiritual center honoring the nation's war dead. Makoto Koga, head of the Japan War-Bereaved Association and former LDP secretary general, said in a recent newspaper interview that he opposes the proposal for a new memorial.
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