Mori says he will not make official visit
to Yasukuni Shrine
HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo - Prime Minister
Yoshiro Mori said Sunday he will not make
an official visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine,
a Shinto memorial often viewed as a symbol
of Japan's wartime past, on the Aug. 15 anniversary
of Japan's surrender to Allied powers in
World War II.
However, speaking at a press conference,
Mori held out the possibility of visiting
the shrine in a private capacity.
''It's a personal issue that concerns my
thought, so I'll make a decision carefully
and independently,'' Mori said when asked
whether he would visit the shrine as a private
citizen.
Yasukuni Shrine is dedicated to the 2.4 million
Japanese who have died in wars since the
19th century. Several class-A war criminals
such as wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki
Tojo are enshrined there.
Earlier this week, Mori said he had not decided
whether to visit the shrine Aug. 15. He did
so last year.
In the past, visits by cabinet ministers
to Yasukuni Shrine angered Japan's Asian
neighbors invaded by Japanese troops during
the war, such as China.
Two prime ministers have so far paid homage
while in office -- Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1985
and Ryutaro Hashimoto in 1996 -- drawing
immediate criticism from China and other
Asian nations invaded by Japanese troops.
The Japanese word yasukuni means peaceful
country.
==Kyodo
