FILE PHOTO : A man holds an imperial flag as he visits the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan August 15, 2019, on the 74th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War Two. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
August 19, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese police on Monday arrested a man claiming to be Chinese for throwing a black ink-like liquid on a curtain at one of the buildings of Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
Japan’s neighbors see the shrine as a symbol of the country’s former militarism, since it honors 14 Japanese leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal as war criminals, along with other war dead.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine on Thursday, the anniversary of Japan’s World War Two surrender, but refrained from visiting in person.
Details such as the motives, address and occupation of the man arrested for property damage were unclear, a police official said.
No one was immediately available for comment at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo.
A picture on public broadcaster NHK’s website showed part of a rectangular white cloth hung across the front of one of the shrine’s main buildings besmirched with numerous black spots.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
