LONDON -- U.S. President George W. Bush is reported to have stressed recently to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi the importance of healthy diplomatic relations between Japan and Asian countries and to have suggested that improved relationships in the region could help to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship. The fact that Bush pointed out such obvious facts to Koizumi highlights the extent of the recent deterioration in Japan's relations with China and South Korea.
Visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Koizumi and other Japanese Ministers in their official capacity have been regarded in both China and South Korea as provocative not least because the "souls" of Japanese leaders condemned at the Tokyo Trials are also enshrined there. This is interpreted as the Japanese government's failure to acknowledge Japan's responsibility for the war in the Far East.
Some historians harbor doubts about the fairness of the international war-crimes tribunal, and the sufferings caused by the war cannot be attributed solely to Japanese authorities. Still, an objective analysis of events between 1931 and 1945 shows that the Japanese military and political leaders were responsible for the death of many millions and for unacceptable suffering. (Some of the greatest casualties and worst suffering were inflicted on the Japanese people by the leaders who led them in the war.)