MOSCOW – Russia on Thursday condemned Japan's attempts to conceal its history of militaristic aggression and war crimes, calling on Tokyo to face up to its past and make genuine amends to the victims.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made these remarks at a press conference in response to a question from Xinhua News Agency regarding reports that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi might visit the Yasukuni Shrine. Zakharova pointed out that Yasukuni Shrine is a symbol of Japanese militarism, where Class A Japanese war criminals sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are enshrined.
„It is difficult for us to imagine how many lives Japanese militarism claimed and how brutally it treated civilians, but these are all historically documented facts,“ she said. Zakharova said that Japan should build a memorial hall dedicated to the victims of Japanese militarism and should „send representatives there every year, or even more often, to pay their respects as a way of atoning for the crimes it committed.“
Russia once again urges Japan to refrain from attempts to conceal the inhumane atrocities in its history and to fully acknowledge the results of the Second World War, she said.
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