A group of Taiwan aboriginals have arrived in Tokyo to voice opposition to the Japanese Prime Minister's visits to a Tokyo war shrine.    

The 50 group members are relatives of Taiwan aboriginals who were enshrined at Yasukuni after being drafted into the Japanese military and dying during the war.

 

The members want their relatives' names removed from memorial plaques there because they object to what they see as murderers and victims being honored in the same place.

 

Group leader May Chin says the group also wants Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to stop visiting the shrine instead of just giving "oral apologies."

 

"As a politician, especially a high-ranking official such as Prime Minister Koizumi, he should face the history of the damnation of Taiwan. He should not only give oral apologies, he also needs to take action and not visit the shrine anymore," he said.

 

About 28-thousand Taiwan war dead are enshrined at Yasukuni under Japanese names they were forced to assume.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2005)