Opinion: Japan’s Takaichi sends offering to Yasukuni Shrine as minister visits in person, renewing questions over the country’s atonement for wartime aggression

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine for its autumn festival, while cabinet minister Minoru Kiuchi visited the shrine in person, an opinion post said. The commentary said the latest actions again raise serious questions about whether Japan has truly atoned for its history of militarist aggression and atrocities.

The post described Yasukuni as a shrine housing 14 convicted Japanese World War II Class-A war criminals and more than 1,000 war criminals in total.

It called for history not to be distorted, war crimes not to be whitewashed and responsibility not to be evaded. A nation’s commitment to peace, it said, should be measured not by rhetoric but by its willingness to face its past with honesty and remorse.

The commentary added that the “ghosts of militarism” must never be allowed to return and that the lessons of history must never be forgotten.