BEIJING
China has again called on Japan to reflect on its militaristic past, criticizing a recent visit by the Japanese premier’s wife to a controversial shrine for the war dead, according to local media Friday.
State news agency Xinhua quoted Hua Chunying, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, as saying, "Japan should make a clean break from militarism and do more that will promote trust and reconciliation with its neighbors."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife, Akie Abe, said Tuesday that she visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
She wrote on her Facebook account that she "felt different" as the trip had followed a visit to the former site of an air base in southwestern Kagoshima Prefecture from which some kamikaze pilots flew at the end of World War II.
She also posted a photo of herself standing beside a senior priest at the shrine, which honors Japan’s fallen soldiers but also includes 14 “Class A” war criminals accused of planning and waging "aggressive" war.
Akie Abe had also posted on Facebook in May that she had visited the site.
Japan’s neighbors -- particularly China and South Korea -- view visits by officials to Yasukuni as a sign of Tokyo’s failure to atone for its imperialism, and conservative politicians in the country have been accused of repeatedly downgrading previous statements of apology.
Abe has not visited the shrine since December 2013 -- a move that had even drawn criticism from the United States.
He has, however, sent ritual offerings to the site, including on the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender in the war last weekend.
