Yasukuni

Again a japanese PM visits Yasukuni shrine where japanese war dead are enshrined, including war criminals. Again there are protests from abroad.
Let us not be fooled by the claims coming from certain Japanese such as Koizumi, that this is an issue of japanese culture and misunderstanding on the part of foreigners. The Japanese are perfectly intelligent enough to differentiate between those who gave their lives unwillingly and those who orchestrated crimes against humanity. They are also capable of separating religion and state.
Let us not be fooled either by the 'protests' emanating from the leaders of China and Korea. These states are hardly beacons of democracy, and it is obvious their 'protests' are merely political point-scoring, as is Lee Teng-Hui's so-called support of koizumi. The fact that Japan doesn't recognise Taiwan, just like the United States, should not make people forget that Japan, as the US is an important defence partner of Taiwan. Realpolitik at it's most cynical.