NOW THAT JUNICHIRO Koizumi has committed the ultimate offense of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine on August 15th–the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II–what is “big” China going to do with an increasingly disobedient “little” Japan? Probably not much, except repeating the same old empty threats.
A grim-faced Chinese foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, immediately summoned an equally grim-faced Japanese ambassador, Yuji Miyamoto, to denounce Koizumi’s visit to the shrine, his sixth since taking office, as a move that “challenges the international justice” and “tramples the conscience of mankind.” “China strongly requests Japanese leaders to make efforts to remove political barriers and push the Sino-Japanese ties back to the normal development track at an early date,” Li said, demanding that Japan’s next leader not visit the Shinto shrine where fourteen Class-A war criminals are honored among 2.5 million other souls.
