Abe faces calls after praising wartime 'hero'

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should correct his historical attitudes and clarify his country's militarist crimes in World War II before promoting a diplomat who is credited with helping about 6,000 Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution, a Chinese expert said.

Chiune Suhigara, called the "Japanese Schindler" by his country's media, is a diplomat who issued Japanese transit visas during World War II to help thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi-occupied Poland in 1940, despite his country being a close ally of Nazi Germany.

Suhigara was praised by Abe at the former Japanese consulate in Lithuania on Sunday.