Senior U.S. lawmakers on Thursday urged the next prime minister to avoid Yasukuni Shrine and improve ties with China and South Korea, and also called for correcting the history taught at the shrine's museum.
Most vocal at a hearing, titled Japan's Relations with Her Neighbors and held by the House International Relations Committee, were the two top members -- Chairman Henry Hyde, a Republican from Illinois, and ranking Democratic member Tom Lantos from California.
"It is troubling to those of my generation to learn that the Yushukan museum in Tokyo is teaching younger generations of Japanese that World War II in Asia was launched by Tokyo to free the people of Asia and the Pacific from the yoke of Western imperialism," Hyde said.
"It should be corrected," he said.