Ex-leader of Taiwan Lee visits Yasukuni to honour brother (1st Lead)

Jun 7, 2007, 4:55 GMT

Tokyo/Taipei - Former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine Thursday to pay tribute to his brother, who served in the former Japanese imperial army during World War II.

Lee, who is on an 11-day sightseeing trip in Japan, entered the main sanctuary of the war-related Tokyo shrine to honour his brother, who died in the Philippines while fighting for the Japanese imperial army.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895-1945.

The Yasukuni visit by Lee was likely to irk China, which has protested Lee's visit to Japan and has protested Japanese leaders' visits to the Yusukuni shrine which honours Japan's dead soliders. China has viewed the 84-year-old Lee as a separatist who advocates Taiwan's formal independence from China.

While the Yasukuni Shrine honours 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals of World War II, the visits by Japanese politicians, especially by the nation's prime minister, have angered other Asian nations which suffered from Japanese atrocities during the war.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shrugged off Lee's visit to Japan as the former leader's private business and said the planned visit to the Yasukuni Shrine would be up to Lee to decide.

'We recognize that former president Lee has come to Japan as a private person. As a private person, needless to say, he has freedom of religion. Japan is a free country,' Abe said on the day Lee arrived.

Lee stressed the visit to the Yusukuni Shrine was a private visit and should not be linked with politics.

'I have not seen my elder brother for 60 years. This visit is purely for family reasons and I hope you will not link it with politics or history,' Lee said in fluent Japanese at a Tokyo hotel before visiting the shrine.

The Taiwan government said it respected Lee's decision to visit the shrine because Lee is a private citizen now.

'Lee Teng-hui is now a private citizen and visiting the Yukusuni Shrine is his personal decision which has nothing to do with politics,' Foreign Minister James Huang said.

Before Lee's Yasukuni visit, China cautioned Japan to handle it appropriately, according to Kyodo News Agency, citing Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao in Berlin this week.

Japanese premier Abe and Chinese President Hu Jintao are expected to meet during the G8 (Group of Eight) summit talks in Germany on Friday.

'The Japanese side should be well aware what type of person Lee is and what the purpose of his activities are,' Liu was quoted as saying.

It would not have an adverse impact on China-Japan relations, he added.

China and Taiwan split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still regards the island as an inseparable part of China that must be brought back to its fold, if necessary by force.

Lee Teng-hui is expected to leave Japan Saturday.