About 100 Japanese lawmakers visit controversial shrine

TOKYO (AP) — A group of about 100 Japanese lawmakers has prayed at a Tokyo shrine viewed by China and the Koreas as a symbol of Japanese wartime aggression. Their visit to Yasukuni Shrine occurred 80 years after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Many of the lawmakers, including nine vice Cabinet ministers, are members of the conservative governing party. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II. In Japan, the date was Dec. 8. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially Chinese and Koreans, see Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of Japan’s militarism because it honors its war dead, including convicted war criminals.