Yasukuni Shrine: Former Japanese Prime Minister Abe visits controversial memorial

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the controversial war memorial just days after he stepped down.

Abe posted a picture of himself at the Yasukuni Shrine, telling his followers that he went there to inform the spirits of his resignation.

He kept a long way from the shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, as well as convicted war criminals, during his premiership.

Abe’s visit in 2013 angered China and South Korea.

Japan’s occupation of its neighbors ended with its defeat in 1945 and the end of World War II.

Japan’s leaders’ visits to the shrine were previously seen as a lack of remorse for its military past. Neither China nor the two Koreas have responded to this latest visit yet.

However, a Japanese government spokesman defended Abe’s right to visit the shrine, saying that Japan recognized its wartime atrocities.

As prime minister, Abe sought to revise Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution to include a clause formally legitimizing the military. However, it did not work.

He resigned from the prime minister position – a position he had held since 2012 – last month, saying he was in health difficulties. Former Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, was elected to succeed him last week.

What is Yasukuni Shrine?

• Built in 1869 during the reign of Emperor Meiji
• Honors the lives of 2.5 million war dead
• Among these were hundreds of convicted war criminals, among them wartime leader Hideki Togo, who was executed in 1948.
• The shrine’s organizers confirm that thousands of civilians have been honored
• China and South Korea regard the shrine as a glorification of Japanese atrocities
• Read more:Yasukuni Shrine of Japan