Inada’s visit to Yasukuni an insult to US

Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada visited the Yasukuni Shrine Thursday morning, right after accompanying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Pearl Harbor, an action which also irritated Western observers.



Pearl Harbor is where the Pacific War erupted in 1941. The presence of Abe and Inada at the ceremony commemorating the 1941 attack is a gesture to please the US.



But the visit to the shrine which honors Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals, indicates quite the opposite.



The war criminals and the American troops who died in the Pearl Harbor attack served completely different missions. Inada's visit is a slap on the face of US President Barack Obama. The whole world finds it hard to follow Japan's logic.



The visit of Abe and his followers to Pearl Harbor displeased Japanese right-wing forces and Inada intended to smooth things out. Pearl Harbor and the Yasukuni Shrine, which embody totally different meanings, are placed at the same level by Japan.



Perhaps it is the Obama administration and the Americans who should feel insulted most by Japan's tricks, rather than China and South Korea.



The Americans can swallow the humiliation to save face. But the rest of the world has witnessed how the Japanese directed the farce, as Inada paid the same tribute to the American victims during the war and the war criminals who planned the Pearl Harbor attack the next day.



The values of the Obama administration are no more worthwhile than those of Japanese right-wing forces in the eyes of Inada. The Americans are just a bargaining chip the Abe administration can make use of.



Many Chinese people are routinely angered by Japanese politicians' visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. But this time, people mocked Inada's visit. The Japanese politicians are too calculating to be taken seriously.



Japan cannot get away with their WWII history because of the twisted attitude of Japanese people toward that history.



They apologize first, but later seem to retreat from the posture. They often make the world feel confused over their inconsistent words and deeds.



The world feels that the Japanese just gloss over historical issues and do not have a correct understanding of history; they are not sincere in self-introspection. Their fake-outs over historical issues seem to outshine any graceful commemorative events by any other country.



It is too much for the world to follow every visit to the Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese politicians. The best attitude the Chinese should adopt is perhaps to despise the extreme and eccentric game Japanese society is trying to play.

