[Laissez-faire capitalist]

Other war criminals at the Japanese shrine besides Tojo? Check and see...

[cartan]

The Chinese were testing Abe's resolve, provoking incidents at the Senkaku islands. He had to show that he would not be intimidated and was not afraid of the Chinese, and that Japan is willing to defend its interests. Visiting the Yasukuni shrine does that very easily. Other prime ministers have done it before, including Koizumi.

I have visited it, too, but it did not make any headlines, unfortunately ;-)

[onedoug]

The Japanese enshrining their war criminals is even more ridiculous as at least they have moved into the 21st century while islamic barbarians remain islamic barbarians.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

I think it’s a “dog bites man” vs. “man bites dog” thing. We expect the Iranians to honor terrorists and war criminals, so it’s not really newsworthy when they do so. On the other hand, we expect (or, more accurately, hope) the Japanese to have moved on from their imperial past, and so it is newsworthy when they do things that can be perceived as honoring war criminals from their past.

[Cindy]

Thread bump.