Koizumi pays tribute to Japan's war dead, provoking fury across Asia

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday walked a few steps into the inner sanctum of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo where an enormous bouquet of flowers and a placard with his name written in exquisite calligraphy lay in the main hall of worship.

The country's most popular post-war prime minister, dressed in a morning suit, had moved past crowds cheering their approval as he fulfilled his controversial pledge to become the first serving prime minister in 16 years to officially honour the nation's war dead interred there. These include the executed war-time prime minister Hideki Tojo and 13 other "class A" war criminals. But the visit also guaranteed that Japan would again face a torrent of outrage from around Asia and a tidal wave of international criticism.

He did not have to wait long. Moments after he stepped into the Shinto monument, 20 men in South Korea draped in national flags publicly chopped off their little fingers in a macabre ritual protest. The men said they would post the severed fingers to the Japanese embassy and threatened to disembowel themselves if Mr Koizumi did not apologise for the shrine visit. The shrine – a popular haunt for right-wing groups – is seen across Asia as a symbol of resurgent Japanese militarism and a sign of the country's unwillingness to atone for atrocities as its armies rampaged across Asia in the early half of the 20th century.

The Yasukuni shrine commemorates the 2.5 million Japanese war-dead since the 19th century. In 1978 Shinto priests secretly deified Japan's most notorious war criminals, including General Tojo.

Japanese right-wingers applauded and left-wing students screamed their disapproval as Mr Koizumi, accompanied by a Shinto priest in white robes, entered the inner sanctum at Yasukuni. He stood silently and bowed once. Outside, the sound of TV helicopters whirling above the massive shrine drowned out the chorus of cicadas in the humid summer.

Clearly concerned at the criticism the visit was about to unleash, the Prime Minister did not undergo traditional Shinto purification rituals at the shrine's altar. He also tried to dispel criticism that the visit was intended to glorify Japanese militarism, saying in a statement issued just before the visit: "I want to express my deepest condolences to all the people who sacrificed their lives in the war. Our country should never again walk the path to war."

Among those who expressed outrage at the pilgrimage was Kim Tae Sun, 57, a Korean whose father was reported killed in China in 1945 after being conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army. "I want to cry I am so angry. It's impossible for me to suppress my anger," he said. "It's an insult to Asian nations, which were victims of the Pacific war, and I view it as a revival of Japan's militarism." China's state press also attacked Mr Koizumi's actions. "His purpose in doing this is nothing but to woo votes from Japanese rightists as well as to beautify Japan's past aggressions," said the state-run China Daily. China's foreign ministry immediately summoned Japan's ambassador to Beijing, Koreshige Anami, to receive a formal protest yesterday afternoon and a van-load of police was sent to step up security outside the embassy.

State television showed Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressing "strong indignation" in a meeting with the Japanese ambassador. "China's position on this question has not changed at all," the ministry said in a statement. "We are opposed to Japanese leaders paying their respects and worshipping at the Yasukuni Shrine to class A war criminals. The essence of the Yasukuni Shrine question is whether the Japanese side can sincerely repent that aggressive period of history."

Mr Koizumi's visit was two days earlier than planned in order, Mr Koizumi said, to avoid the sensitive 15 August anniversary of Japan's Second World War surrender, and thereby demonstrate his wish to "promote friendship with China, South Korea and other neighbouring countries". But the subtlety of this concession was lost on these countries, which had repeatedly called for the visit to be scrapped. Korea, in particular, is still smarting over the recent approval of Japanese school textbooks which whitewash the horrors committed by the Japanese in the Second World War. Within Japan, opposition groups, notably the New Komeito party, repeated their concern over the Yasukuni visit's potential effect on relations with Asian neighbours.

Critics also repeated their charges that official visits to the Shinto shrine, at which convicted war criminals are honoured alongside other war dead, could infringe the constitutional separation of state and religion. Concern has intensified over the possible impact of deteriorating Japan-South Korea relations upon the countries' joint hosting of the World Cup in 2002. Nations across Asia suffered from Japan's aggression in the early 20th century, when torture and the use of women as sex slaves were common. Museums in China graphically illustrate the extent of the horrors. In the northern Chinese town of Harbin, a former Japanese biological weapons testing facility today carries a painting depicting Chinese being tied to a pole in a field as planes drop disease-carrying bombs nearby.

Beijing is expected to avoid escalating its criticism of yesterday's visit while relations with the United States are only just recovering from a string of clashes in the first half of the year. South Korea suspended some official contacts with Japan and numerous cultural exchange visits over the textbook row but the two nations have vowed not to let political issues spoil their joint hosting of the World Cup.

Yet since taking office in April Mr Koizumi, the wavy haired maverick who is enjoying the kind of hero worship normally reserved for pop stars, has repeatedly stated his intentions to visit the Yasukuni shrine tomorrow, the anniversary of Japan's surrender. Many say the move was aimed at winning support from a powerful group of war veterans and politicians who feel the war should be laid to rest now that more than 50 years have passed. Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, urged Mr Koizumi at the weekend to pay his respects before tomorrow to tone down the symbolism of the visit. Others in Mr Koizumi's administration argued changing the date would be an insult to the veterans and their survivors – a view apparently shared by most Japanese.

A survey conducted over the weekend by NTV, a major television network, said nearly 50 per cent of those polled supported the Prime Minister's plan to visit Yasukuni on the anniversary. Less than 40 per cent were against. These figures were mirrored in the crowds at Yasukuni yesterday. The majority of the thousands of onlookers cheered on the Prime Minister.

Young couples, their hair dyed a trendy brown or blond, wandered around the compound curiously, with cameras dangling from their necks, perhaps oblivious to the politics and just there to seek a glimpse of the man whose face has sold thousands of T-shirts and mobile phone covers. Then there were the right-wingers who yelled, "Thank you, Prime Minister, thank you". At one point the Korean group's protest was broken up by a middle-aged Japanese man who approached them shouting, "Koreans go home". He was quickly pushed back by police.

"I would feel pain in my heart even if Japanese people expressed sympathy, but it's awful to be treated in the exact opposite way," said a 59-year-old Korean, Jung Gwang-Ja, whose father was forced to leave her family just 11 days after her birth to serve for the Japanese military.

Mr Koizumi's spokesman, Tsutomu Himeno, said the Prime Minister wanted to visit the shrine to "show respect for those who sacrificed their lives for the country and to renew his resolve not to engage the country in a war again". Mr Koizumi declined to clarify whether the visit was official or private, saying merely he had paid homage as "Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi" and had used his own money to pay for the floral tribute sent in his name to the shrine at the weekend.