Japan leader sends offerings to controversial Tokyo shrine

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has donated religious offerings to a Tokyo shrine viewed by Chinese and Koreans as a symbol of Japanese wartime militarism, though he did not visit it in person. Kishida donated Shinto “masakaki” ornaments for Yasukuni Shrine’s biennial festival, as he has done since becoming prime minister last year. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially Chinese and Koreans, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism because it honors convicted war criminals among about 2.5 million war dead. Critics also consider visits by Japanese Cabinet ministers and other officials to the shrine as a sign of a lack of remorse over the country’s wartime atrocities.