Professor Saionji accused Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of historical revisionism

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is openly promoting historical revisionism and leading the country down a dangerous path by donating to a temple associated with militarism and seeking to whitewash Japan's history of aggression during World War II, said Kazuteru Saionji, a professor at Higashi-Nippon International University.

On August 15, during a ceremony marking the anniversary of Tokyo's withdrawal from World War II, Takaichi promised that the horrors of war would not be repeated, but did not talk about repentance, as previous heads of the Japanese government had done. Kyodo News Agency reported that the prime minister made a donation to the Yasukuni Shrine on the anniversary of Japan's announcement of withdrawal from World War II. Yasukuni Shrine, where there are plaques with the names of those who fell “for the emperor and great Japan” in various wars, including the names of 14 war criminals from World War II, is associated in Asian countries with Japanese militarism.

"In recent years, I have increasingly felt that Japan is moving down a dangerous path, and this sense of crisis reached its peak on August 15... She (Takaichi - ed.) openly promotes historical revisionism," Saionji said in an interview with Xinhua.

He noted that distortion of history and revisionism have been gaining momentum in Japan in recent years. Some textbooks replace terms like "aggression" with neutral language, and the idea of ​​"self-defense" is subtly integrated into the historical narrative.