Japan Emperor Akihito reiterates 'deep remorse' over wartime acts

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual donation on Wednesday to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine that enshrined 14 convicted Class-A war criminals as Japan marked the 73rd anniversary of the country's surrender in World War II.

"I was told (by the prime minister) that he regrets not being able to visit the shrine and was asked to pray for the souls of our predecessors," Masahiko Shibayama, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's special adviser to Abe, told reporters after visiting the Shinto shrine in Tokyo on behalf of Abe. Abe was said to have donated the money in his capacity as the LDP leader out of his own pocket.

China urged Japan to squarely face and reflect on its history of aggression, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in an online statement on Wednesday.

Lu stressed that the shrine honors Class-A convicted war criminals who were directly responsible for the war of aggression and China firmly opposes the wrongful practice by the Japanese side.

China demands that Japan takes practical actions to gain the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community, he said.

Analysts say ritual offerings to Yasukuni on Aug 15 each year and during its spring and autumn festivals may be Abe's approach to walking a tightrope: He wants to please his conservative voters and he can't displease Japan's Asian neighbors that suffered under Japan's wartime atrocities.

About 50 members of a bipartisan group of Japanese lawmakers paid pilgrimage to the shrine on Wednesday. Shinjiro Koizumi, a rising star in the LDP and the son of former popular prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, was one of them.

At an official ceremony to mourn Japan's war dead, Japanese Emperor Akihito reiterated his "deep remorse" over the country's wartime acts. It was his last chance to attend the ceremony as emperor because he is set to abdicate on April 30 next year, which will put an end to Japan's Heisei era starting in 1989.

"Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated," the emperor said.

In contrast to the Emperor, Abe stopped short of remorse in his address at the ceremony while pledging "not to repeat the tragedy of the war" and "humbly face history and pursue this determined pledge" under any circumstances.

Instead, Abe added that the Japanese would never forget that the peace and prosperity enjoyed by the nation now was constructed on top of the ultimate sacrifice made by the war dead.

The word "remorse" has never appeared in his speeches on the anniversary since he began his second stint as prime minister in 2012.

Abe has shunned this customary reference to remorse over Japan's wartime responsibility.

According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor, people who were to attend this year's ceremony included 5,455 bereaved family members aged between 2 and 102. Of the total, children of the fallen number 2,864, becoming the largest group of its kind in the history of the memorial.

Zhou Jin in Beijing contributed to this story.