Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II, points to his failure to understand that such visits have a historical dimension that overshadows Japan's relations with neighboring countries.
A prime minister's visit to Yasukuni, which honors 12 convicted Class-A war criminals and two suspects, as well as Japan's 2.46 million war dead, cannot simply be "a matter of the heart" -- an expression Mr. Koizumi often uses to explain his actions. Not only do the visits further strain Japan's already chilled relations with its neighbors, particularly China and South Korea, but they lead other people of Asia, and much of the international community, to suspect that Japan has not fully denounced the mistakes of militarism during the 1930s and '40s. This perception can cause serious harm to Japan's international standing.
For five previous visits, Mr. Koizumi had avoided Aug. 15. This time, he finally fulfilled his pledge made during the 2001 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election campaign to visit the shrine on the war-end anniversary. The damage this has done is great. This is the first Yasukuni visit by a prime minister on Aug. 15 since Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's visit in 1985. Mr. Nakasone, however, refrained from visiting Yasukuni again during his remaining term following strong protests from China and South Korea. Mr. Koizumi's stubbornness, on the other hand, has exposed his failure to grasp what his behavior signifies in a larger, historical context.