Lawmakers' Yasukuni visit draws Beijing rebuke as provocation

Beijing condemned a Yasukuni Shrine visit by a group of Japanese lawmakers on the 80th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, calling on Japan to face and reflect deeply on its invasive past and make a clean break with militarism.

A group of about 100 Japanese lawmakers prayed at the shrine on Tuesday, reported The Associated Press. Many of the lawmakers, including nine vice-ministers and special aides in Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet, are members of his conservative governing party, it said.

The Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines 14 Class-A war criminals of World War II, is a symbol of Japanese militarism's invasion into other countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday, adding that the visit "shows once again that Japan fails to reflect on its invasive history".

"As far as I know, the Yushukan Museum, a war museum in the shrine claims the Pearl Harbor attack was a trap that the United States set up to draw Japan into war, and that Japan was forced into 'defensive war'," said Zhao, pointing out that the lawmakers' visit was probably "for the purpose of provocation".

Japan, which had already invaded China at the time, launched a surprise strike on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec 7,1941, triggering the Pacific War.

The whole invasive war that Japanese militarism launched has brought about huge disaster as well as indelible and painful memories to people in Asian countries, Zhao said.

"After all these years, Japan still owes an explicit confession to its Asian neighbors, including China," he said.

The politicians who visited the Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday are among those in Japan who "have failed to learn a lesson from history and instead tried to revive the ghost of militarism", Zhao said.

He urged Japan to contemplate its crimes against humanity caused by Japanese militarism.

China opposes "any backpedaling in history", and will resolutely safeguard fairness and justice in the world, maintain world peace and uphold the international system with the United Nations at the core, as well as international order based on international law.