SEOUL, April 22 (UPI) — South Korea on Tuesday voiced “deep disappointment and regret” after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sent an offering to a shrine seen by many as an unapologetic symbol of Japan’s aggression during World War II.
Ishiba sent a ritual “masakasi” tree branch offering for the two-day springtime festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which commemorates millions of Japan’s war dead — including numerous figures who were convicted of war crimes.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers also visited the shrine in person to pay their respects, Japanese media reported.
“The government of the Republic of Korea expresses deep disappointment and regret over the fact that responsible leaders of Japan have once again sent offerings to and paid respects at the Yasukuni Shrine which glorifies Japan’s war of aggression and enshrines war criminals,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Jae-woong said in a statement.
South Korea urged Japanese leaders to “squarely face history and demonstrate through action their humble reflection and sincere remorse for Japan’s past history,” Lee said.
“This is an important foundation for the development of future-oriented relations between the two countries based on mutual trust,” he added.
Ishiba was not expected to visit Yasukuni in consideration of Tokyo’s improving ties with Seoul and Beijing, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
“The prime minister made the masakaki offering in a private capacity and therefore it is not something that the government should comment on,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a press briefing Monday.
“It is up to the prime minister to decide whether to visit the shrine or not,” the government spokesman said.
The Shinto shrine is meant to house the spirits of millions of Japan’s war dead — including more than 1,000 military figures who were convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal following World War II. Among them are wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo and 13 other Class A war criminals.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the last Japanese leader to visit the shrine in December 2013, which sparked outrage in South Korea.
The frosty relationship between Tokyo and Seoul, long strained by issues such as compensation to victims of forced labor under Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation of Korea, has seen a thaw in recent years.
Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made improving ties between the neighbors a priority, and in 2023 announced a plan to use Seoul’s public funds to pay the victims. He visited Tokyo for a bilateral summit with then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shortly afterward, marking the first such trip by a South Korean leader in a dozen years.
The two sides followed up with a period of “shuttle diplomacy” that included increased trilateral security cooperation with the United States under the administration of former President Joe Biden.
In the wake of Yoon’s impeachment and removal from office earlier this month, however, questions have emerged about the future of the relationship. The “America First” foreign policy of U.S. President Donald Trump and his intensifying trade war with Beijing have complicated the geopolitical dynamic further.
In South Korea, which will hold a snap election in June, liberal frontrunner Lee Jae-myung said recently he would take a pragmatic approach to international relationships, calling the alliances with the United States and Japan important but vowing to prioritize South Korea’s interests.
Last month, Ishiba told Seoul’s top diplomat Cho Tae-yeol that relations between Japan, the United States and South Korea would not change, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. Ishiba, who took office in October, also refrained from visiting Yasukuni Shrine during last year’s autumn festival, sending the masakaki ritual offering instead.
