China’s Untied Nation’s envoy Liu Jieyi on Wednesday questioned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s motives for visiting a controversial war shrine and called on him to correct his “erroneous outlook” on history.
On December 26, Abe visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals are enshrined along with other war dead. The visit infuriated China and South Korea and prompted concern from the United States as well.
Under Japanese occupation in 1930s and colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945, the countries had suffered a brutal rule by Japan’s leaders.
“It all boils down to whether the leader of a country should stand on the side of maintaining the principles and purposes of the charter of the United Nations or to side with war criminals,” China’s U.N. envoy Liu Jieyi told reporters.
“The question inevitably arises as to what Abe is up to, where does he intend to take his country?” Liu said.
“The international community should remain vigilant and issue a warning … that Abe must correct his erroneous outlook of history, he must correct his mistakes and he must not slip further down the wrong path,” he said.
Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa responded later on Wednesday, saying that that Abe’s visit to the shrine was not for paying homage to war criminals or praising militarism.
“Prime Minister Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine to pay his respects and pray for the souls of the war dead and renew the pledge that Japan shall never again wage war. It was nothing more and nothing less,” Yoshikawa said.
Ties between the two countries are already sour due to a dispute over ownership of East China Sea islands.
