Beijing slams Tokyo for enshrining war criminals

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning urged Japan's policymakers to "face history squarely" and reflect on war crimes after records recently disclosed show that the Japanese government, in the 1960s, had not publicly announced arrangements it had made with the Yasukuni Shrine regarding enshrining Class-A war criminals until the decision was made public in 1979.

Japanese media recently unveiled internal meeting records from the Yasukuni Shrine for the first time, providing a systematic account of the decision-making process behind enshrining the 14 Class-A war criminals.

In response, Mao said the records once again prove that the Japanese government at that time was fully aware that enshrining Class-A war criminals would be extremely disgraceful.

"These Class-A war criminals were the chief perpetrators of Japan's militarist wars of aggression, and their hands are stained with the blood of the people of the victimized countries, " she said at a daily news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

"Where is the conscience of Japan's sitting policymakers who repeatedly pay homage to what is actually a war criminals' shrine?" she added.