Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a fair-sounding peace-loving promise at the Pacific island of Iwojima on Sunday. For a prime minister whose repeated visits to the disputed Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo have upset relations with neighboring countries, concrete actions are more needed than word-of-mouth determination to assure people of his good faith. 

As the first sitting prime minister to visit the island where more than 28,000 troops of Japan and the United States lost their lives in a World War II battle, Koizumi said at the memorial ceremony that "I hope I could contribute to permanent world peace with an understanding that their ultimate sacrifice has brought about today's peace and prosperity."

Koizumi also made some resounding chicaneries for his repeated visits to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, saying the visits are an "expression of remorse over the past aggression war and determination against war."

But an indisputable fact is that Koizumi's visits have severely hurt the feelings of Asian people who suffered from the atrocities of Japanese aggression before and during WWII. He also attempted to refute Asian people's protests over the issue, saying at a recent parliament meeting that his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine are an internal affair of Japan in which other countries should not interfere.

Obviously, instead of turning his verbal promises into actions, the Japanese prime minister has gone farther in the wrong direction on the issue of Yasukuni visits.

As is widely known, the 14 Class-A war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni started and led the Japanese war of aggression, committing the most heinous crimes against world peace and humanity. Most of the Class-A criminals also took part in the Japanese aggressive war against China and inflicted unforgivable atrocities on the Chinese people.

By paying tribute to these criminals, the Japanese leader is undoubtedly denying the country's militaristic history and whitewashing its war of aggression. These acts are grave provocations against the Asian people who had greatly suffered from the Japanese militarism, and will in no way be tolerated.

In fact, Koizumi's insistence upon visiting the Yasukuni Shrine and his incorrect stance on history issues also shook the political foundation of the China-Japan and South Korea-Japan relations, causing a sharp deterioration of such relations.

While taking the damaging actions, the prime minister had repeatedly said that China-Japan and South Korea-Japan relations are of great importance and Japan is willing to develop friendly ties with China, South Korea and other Asian countries, revealing certain duplicity in his behavior.   

A commentary carried by Tokyo News on Sunday pointed out that Koizumi's attendance at the Iwojima Island war memorial ceremony has a behind-the-scenes purpose, i.e., another attempt to visit the Yasukuni Shrine.

Besides the Iwojima memorial ceremony, Koizumi is to attend two other war memorial ceremonies, one for the war dead in Okinawa battle and another for A-bomb victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to be held on June 23 and sometime in August respectively.

While such activities may help remind people not to forget the past war, the prime minister's Yasukuni visits showed his lack of a profound historical perception of the war responsibilities, the commentary said.

Instead of fulfilling his purpose to "avoid war and honor the war dead," Koizumi only improperly "honors the Class-A war criminals who led the aggression war" by making the Yasukuni visits, the article noted.

The prime minister's wrong remarks and actions have not only sparked strong protests from China, South Korea and other Asian countries, but also caused grave concern among the country's political heavyweights, business groups as well as the majority of Japanese people who have called on Koizumi to stop making such provocative visits.

The speaker of House of Representatives, Yohei Kono, and five former Japanese prime ministers, including Kiichi Miyazawa, Tomiichi Murayama and Yoshiro Mori, reached an agreement in early June, urging Koizumi to halt his visits to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine in order to avoid further hurting relations with Asian countries.

Takenori Kanzaki, leader of the ruling New Komeito Party, also reiterated his call on Koizumi to stop visiting Yasukuni and warned that continued visits would affect the ruling coalition with Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party.

Koizumi has conceded that he is aware of the Yasukuni Shrine's claim that Japan's aggressive war to "free" Asia was legitimate, but then argued that his visits are unrelated to the view.

Japanese Communist Party Chairman Kazuo Shii criticized the remarks, saying that Yasukuni's view is an outright glorification of Japan's war of aggression and Koizumi's visits to the shrine are tantamount to giving a governmental recognition to the shrine's view.

In view of various protests and misgivings home and abroad concerning Koizumi's Yasukuni visits, Japan has only one way to win the trust of the Asian people, that is, to correctly deal with the question of history and deeply reflect upon its past war of aggression. What matters most in this process is not what Koizumi pledges, but how he delivers his pledges through deeds and actions.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2005)