Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Wednesday sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shinto shrine in the heart of Tokyo, a highly controversial location considered by many to be a symbol of Japan's militaristic past.
Yoshihide Suga's predecessor Shinzo Abe, who resigned last year for health reasons, visited Yasukuni in person on Wednesday for the shrine's spring festival, AFP told AFP. spokesperson for the site.
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Yasukuni honors the memory of nearly 2.5 million soldiers who died in the conflicts led by Japan from the end of the 19th century until 1945. But the place also honors the memory of senior Japanese officers and politicians convicted of war crimes by the Allies after World War II. Also the respect regularly shown to this sanctuary by the contemporary Japanese political leaders has the effect of irritating Beijing and Seoul, China and the Korean peninsula having undergone the yoke of Tokyo during the first half of the XXth century.
Shinzo Abe is the last Japanese Prime Minister to visit Yasukuni in person while in office, in 2013. His visit outraged China and South Korea, and it was also sharply criticized by states. -United, yet the great ally of Japan. Shinzo Abe has visited Yasukuni on several occasions since he stepped down from power in September 2020.
