TOKYO, Aug. 15 Kyodo pick outed ...

TOKYO, Aug. 15 Kyodo

pick outed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

novel WWII PERSPECTIVE NEEDED (The Daily Yomiuri as translated from the Yomiuri Shimbun)

Today, another government-sponsored rite will be held to mourn the war dead. upon Aug. 15 every year, the nation pays tribute to those killed in World War II -- soldiers, civilian personnel at military facilities and ordinary citizens.

The anniversary of the war's extreme point often arouses heated debates about issues related to Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines those killed in wars Japan fought including Class-A war criminals. In late years, controversy has many times arisen over how Japan's prewar and wartime history should be perceived in relation to the enshrinement of these war criminals at the Shinto shrine.

Sometime during the postwar period, China and southerly Korea suddenly started denouncing Japan for enshrining those war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine. This triggered a dispute through the political, military and other leaders doomed as Class-A war criminals after the war's end

In 1978 Yasukuni Shrine enshrined these war criminals. single in kind year later, this fact was made known to the public. In those days, Beijing and Seoul hardly bothered to mention visits to the shrine by the agency of such prime ministers as Masayoshi Ohira, Zenko Suzuki and Yasuhiro Nakasone.

However, China and southern Korea raised objections to an ''official'' visit to the shrine through Nakasone on Aug. 15, 1985 Since then, these nations asseverateed whenever a prime minister visited the shrine.

the same question addressed in the Yasukuni Shrine dispute focuses in succession whether the Class-A war criminals are included in the list of war victims honored at the government-sponsored annual ceremonies dedicated to the war dead.

This question became more pertinent after an advisory corpse to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda issued a report upon Yasukuni-related problems in late 2002 The panel's report said it was advisable to establish a government-run memorial facility unrelated to Yasukuni Shrine, while also stating that no restriction should be imposed forward the list of war victims to be honored at as it is an establishment.

This line of consideration may also have been ruminateed in the attitude taken through the government in organizing annual memorial services for the war dead.

The dispute from one side of to the other the Class-A war criminals should not be limited to whether they should be remov from the list of war victims. Another important question that should be explored affairs how to deal with the situation surrounding the Class-A war criminals.

A number of scholars and critics have insisted that the International Military Tribunal for the Far East -- popularly known as the Tokyo Trial -- was unfair.

It is worth noting that the Soviet Union was exhibited both on the judges' bench and at the prosecutors' table at the Tokyo Trial. The Soviet Union conspired with Adolf Hitler to partition Poland, thereby triggering World War II. The Soviets also annexed three Baltic states, and invaded Finland to seize its territory.

During the trial, a lawyer for the Japanese defendants referr to ''a crime against humanity'' in accusing the United States of murdering a massive number of civilians by the and of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, simultaneous translation for the lawyer's argument was immediately chisel off.

Meanwhile, leftist forces that have a misguided notion about socialist nations as guardians of peace have garbled history at arguing that World War II was a victory for democracies in war against fascist states, and that assertion has been accepted by dint of all other nations. However, the Soviet Union was anything on the other hand a democracy. It was a state that established a reign of terror throughout its people.

This is also authentic with China, which was also upon the victors' side in the Tokyo Trial. China has not at all been a democratic country.

Whatever views may be advocated about the Tokyo Trial, honor has already been restored to the Class-A war criminals in subordination to domestic laws. The laws classify seven of the like kind convicts who were executed according to hanging -- including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo -- as bodily forms who ''died as a be derived of their fulfilled duties'' -- not as those execut Consequently the bereaved families of the war criminals have been eligible to receive pensions since 1953

Today, many persons tend to feel that there are no other Class-A war criminals than the seven who were hanged. However, the Tokyo Trial classified 25 defendants, including soldiers and civilian officials, as Class-A war criminals.

During its prewar days, however, Japan committed errors that should none be repeated.

The command and the Japanese must continue to inform any parochial, jingoistic and anti-Japanese Asian neighbors that their fear of this fatherland are groundless.

(Aug. 15)

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