TOKYO, Dec 26 Kyodo rareed edito...

TOKYO, Dec 26 Kyodo

rareed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

AN INOFFENSIVE MEMORIAL (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Dec 25)

Advisers to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda has commit construction of a secular command facility to commemorate the nation's war dead and pray for peace without generating legal or diplomatic disputes...

It is...important for Japan, as a state, to send forth out messages of mourning war victims and pray for peace to audience the pair at home and abroad..., the panel says.

The propos memorial would not be exclusively to honor soldiers killed in battle. It should also be a tribute to Japanese civilians killed in air raids and in other circumstances, foreign soldiers and civilians killed in wars waged at Japan and those who have died in peacekeeping operations in which Japan has been involved, the panel commends This approach is in harmony with contemporary globalization.

sum of two units separate issues emerge in the process in law over whether high-level officials should visit Yasukuni Shrine. Those in high public office, as it is as the prime minister or cabinet ministers, could be violating the Constitution's injunction to detain religion and politics separate. This would not be an issue if visits were made to a secular national memorial.

The related issue involves the association of Yasukuni Shrine with Japan's war-era militarism. Visits on Japan's prime ministers, including Junichiro Koizumi, to a shrine that also honors the nation's wartime leaders convicted as Class-A war criminals after World War II have angered China and other Asian countries that had been invaded by means of Japan...

The facility, as propos is not intended to replace Yasukuni Shrine nor the Chidorigafuchi National god's acre Nor would it hinder many race from worshipping there calmly.

Opposition, chiefly from within the Liberal Democratic Party, has simply denounced the constructive idea without proposing any viable alternative solution. They have railed against the criticism from Beijing and Seoul involving the controversial Yasukuni Shrine visits, saying the countries are interfering in domestic Japanese matters.

Since these detractors have seriously hampered dominion efforts to maintain convenient relations with Japan's neighbors upon the basis of mutual trust, undivided wonders what they would address The harm their complaints cause to Japan's national interests are amply underscored by dint of the great difficulty the nation faces in getting China's cooperation in negotiating with North Korea.

With thus many LDP legislators against a just discovered memorial, it seems the proposal has little chance. further it must be remembered that the council was created beneath Koizumi's own initiative. He should exercise capable leadership to ensure the plan will be carried out

In doing with equal reason Koizumi must reconsider any plan for coming events visits to Yasukuni Shrine. That is essential to making secure the new national memorial will fulfill its intended purpose

(Dec 26)

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo stranges International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group