Editor,

There is a well-known saying that you can judge a person's character by the choices he makes. Junichiro Koizumi showed his true colours by choosing August 15, the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II, as the date for his sixth and, most likely, his last trip to the Yasukuni Shrine in an official capacity. Koizumi kept his promise to his political patrons, but betrayed humanity.

Koizumi must feel very proud of himself at the moment, perhaps seeing himself as a national hero brave enough to resist foreign pressure in honouring the Japanese war dead. With one month left in his tenure as prime minister of Japan, has Koizumi really achieved so little during his time in office that he had to use the shrine visit to steal the spotlight one last time?

It would be a waste of time to analyze the motives of Koizumi in making repeated controversial visits to the shrine. Politicians are showmen; they would stoop to anything to appeal to specific constituents, even the extreme right in Koizumi's case. What puzzles me, though, is the portion of the Japanese population that supports such visits. I often wonder: What's the percentage of the Japanese population that supports such visits? Can these people tell right from wrong? Do they know that honouring murderers is not only offensive to victim countries like China and the Republic of Korea (ROK), but also an insult to humanity?

Honestly speaking, I do not have a very good impression of Japan, as I have very little firsthand knowledge of the country and its people. What I do know about the country is mostly from books, the media, and the people around me.

I'm from Nanjing. I grew up with stories about the Nanjing Massacre. There are people asking, "Why can't you let it go?" The people in China have been trying, but Koizumi won't let them. He refreshed the memories of the whole world about the savage war crimes committed by the invading Japanese army every time he visited the shrine.

My daughter, a lover of Japanese anime, often reminds me that those war crimes were committed a long time ago and that not all Japanese, especially not the ones today, committed those horrible crimes. She is right. I'm glad that she has remembered one important lesson in life to keep an open mind.

But the news from Tokyo has time and again drowned out her voice. According to the Associated Press, supporters of the shrine visit in Japan said that the visit was a matter of Japan's "internal affairs," that Japan had the right to honour those who died for their country and that China and the ROK had no business interfering in Japan's internal affairs.

How can invading other countries and murdering neighbours be "internal affairs?" And does "honouring those who died for their country" include honouring Class-A war criminals executed for their brutality? Does that mean these supporters would encourage more of their countrymen to become such "heroes" for their country? I hope not. But the wrong message seems to be loud and clear.

In addition to the shrine visits, there have also been textbook disputes, whitewashing a history of invasion and war crimes. Despite well-documented facts in books such as The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang and the diaries of Miss Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary who saved thousands of lives in Nanjing during the massacre, some Japanese insist that the Nanjing Massacre never happened. If they can't face history squarely, how can there be guarantees that history won't repeat itself?

This would be a really one-sided column if I did not mention the opponents of the shrine visits in Japan. They filed lawsuits against such visits, citing violation of the constitutional division of church and state. The Supreme Court tossed out the cases. The opponents may not be popular in their own country, but they are the true heroes. It's easy to play the role of a patriot; it's hard to accept the truth, especially an embarrassing truth. But these are the true defenders of Japan's image. Their actions declared to the whole world that there are people in Japan who know that murder is wrong and that honouring war criminals is wrong. They make the world see there is still hope for Japan.

Last month, the Mainichi Shimbun and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun conducted polls on people's attitudes towards Koizumi's shrine visit, and found that more than 50 per cent of the Japanese people opposed such visits after they learned from a recently published memorandum that Emperor Hirohito opposed enshrining war criminals and had refrained from visiting since. That was very encouraging news, and I'm glad that my daughter is proven right.

In a month, Japan will have a new prime minister. If he respects the honour of his country and listens to the voice of his own people, he will make the right choice.

Fei Wen, the United States

(China Daily 08/17/2006 page4)