Japanese PM Hit From All Sides Day After Shrine Visit
By Kazunori Takada
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Tuesday came under fire at home and abroad for paying
homage (敬意）a day earlier at a controversial Shinto shrine
（神祠）where executed war criminals are also enshrined.
The prime minister, swept to power on a wave of popular support in April, now faces the challenge of fending off the foreign and domestic criticism while pursuing painful reforms of the
ailing （.生病的, 境况不佳的）economy and retaining a Buddhist-backed ally in his ruling coalition.
South Korea, China and several other Asian countries as well as most major Japanese newspapers criticized Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni, a Shinto shrine that honors Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals from World War Two.
Monday, after days of dithering（迟疑; 犹豫, 优柔寡断）, Koizumi finally decided against making a promised visit to Yasukuni on the August 15 anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two -- a day that
resonates （(使)共鸣, (使)共振）with symbolism around Asia.
``Is this the result of 'mature consideration'?,'' asked the Asahi Shimbun, the most liberal of Japan's four dailies, adding that Koizumi's decision was ``not worthy of praise.''
``For people in neighboring countries...the visit to Yasukuni by Japanese political leaders is
akin （类似的）to the revival of a nightmare,'' the Asahi said.
No Japanese prime minister has made an official visit to Yasukuni since Yasuhiro Nakasone did so in 1985, and Koizumi did not make clear whether his homage was official.
Attack also came from the Buddhist Soka Gakkai, which backs a key coalition partner, the New Komeito party. The visit was ''disturbing and
deplorable（可叹的）,'' said President Einosuke Akiya.
At the other end of the political spectrum, the conservative Sankei Shimbun took Koizumi to task for backtracking on vows made during speeches in the runup to July's Upper House elections to visit Yasukuni on August 15 -- speeches that helped fuel his popularity and give his party a landslide victory.
Only the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun offered praise.
``Amid severe international pressure such as opposition from China and Korea... it was a wise political decision,'' it said.
In a less controversial move, Koizumi will Wednesday join Emperor Akihito in paying his respects at the tomb of the unknown soldier -- a
secular （长期的）act that will anger neither Buddhists nor right-wingers who favor the Shinto ceremony.
HEAVY FIRE FROM ABROAD
Overseas, the anger among countries invaded by Japan in the 1930s and 1940s was relatively muted.
China's People's Daily credited Japan's Asian neighbors with forcing Koizumi to not visit on the emotionally charged date of August 15, but said this would not change the ``grave influence'' the visit would have on the Sino-Japanese relations.
``It has already been 56 years since the end of World War Two, and the steps of history have advanced eight months into the 21st century, but the Japanese prime minister's act of worship at the Yasukuni Shrine reminds people of the world to pay attention: In what direction is Japan headed?'' it said.
Seoul has already voiced ``deep regret'' and Wednesday, South Korean Ambassador Choi Sang-yong met Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Yoshiji Nogami and reiterated Seoul's stance.
``It is extremely regrettable that the visit took place despite our repeated requests...to refrain from doing so,'' a South Korean embassy official quoted Choi as saying.
In Seoul, about 80 elderly South Koreans burned a picture of Koizumi Tuesday and hundreds of students marched through the capital in angry protests.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong called in Japan's ambassador, Terusuke Terada, and said Seoul's frequent protests this year over historical issues ``give me a heavy heart.''
``We have stressed many times that we cannot accept a Japanese prime minister paying respects to war criminals who destroyed world peace and inflicted indescribable damage upon neighboring countries,'' Choi told Terada.
Communist North Korea also lashed out, charging that Koizumi's visit was ``little short of officially stating that the Japanese authorities ideologically and spiritually represent militarism and ultra-nationalism.''
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said Hanoi was concerned.
Since 1978, 14 wartime leaders convicted by an Allied Forces war tribunal as Class-A war criminals such as wartime premier Hideki Tojo, have been enshrined at Yasukuni.
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