LDP has built-in structure to laud aggression

Why does the prime minister repeatedly upset other Asian peoples by visiting Yasukuni Shrine? Akahata on January 16 commented that the Liberal Democratic Party, like its prewar forerunners, has a deep-seated sense of lauding aggression against other countries.

Faced with criticism from within Japan and abroad of the prime minister's visit to the war shrine, Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukuda Yasuo said, "Doesn't the blame lie on those who are fussing about this?" This remark shows how deep-seated the LDP's favorable view of Japan's past war of aggression is.

In the 1950s, the LDP's predecessor parties demanded that detained war criminals be released on the grounds that the war was a just war. These parties repeatedly proposed Diet resolutions calling for the war criminals to be released.

The LDP's firm belief that war criminals, including Class-A war criminals, were patriots runs deep in today's LDP.

The Shinto Political League was established in 1969, and in 1976 the Society for the Spirit of War Dead Heroes was formed by the convergence of rightist organizations. The two bodies have enjoyed the strong support of LDP members of parliament.

The remark that Japan is a "country of Gods" was made by former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro in May 2000 at a conference of the Shinto Political League. Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in the name of paying respect to those who died for the sake of the country is exactly part of such thinking.

The prime minister's visit to the war shrine in which Class-A war criminals are consecrated will be taken as Japan rejecting any responsibility for the war. (end)