Tokyo Govt avoids shrine visit on VJ day

Japan yesterday commemorated the 65th anniversary of its surrender in World War II, while New Zealanders were among those gathered at a ceremony at Sydney's Anzac memorial.

It is the first time in at least a quarter of a century that no Japanese Government minister has visited a controversial war shrine, visits that provoke outrage across Asia.

Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine is dedicated to 2.5 million people killed as a result of the conflict, including 14 of Japan's top war criminals.

This year's anniversary is the first since Prime Minister Naoto Kan's centre-left Democratic Party ousted the conservative Liberal Democratic Party last year after its almost unbroken half century in power.

Mr Kan and Emperor Akihito, whose father Hirohito surrendered 65 years ago, attended a memorial service in Tokyo.

Mr Kan and his Cabinet vowed not to visit the shrine, something LDP members have done regularly in the past, provoking outrage in China and on the Korean Peninsula where memories of Japan's wartime atrocities refuse to fade.

It was the first time since at least 1985 - when government records of such visits began - that the day was marked without a minister travelling to Yasukuni, local media reported.

The move by the Kan Administration is the latest in a series of overtures by Tokyo to its neighbours. Last week, Japan issued a fresh apology for the country's past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, ahead of the August 29 centenary of its annexation.

Meanwhile, more than 300 people gathered at the Anzac Cenotaph in Sydney's Martin Place to mark the surrender.

War veterans and representatives from New Zealand, the United States and Asian nations placed wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph.

More than 27,000 young Australians were killed or died as prisoners of war, and many more returned home wounded.

New South Wales Returned and Services League president Don Rowe said at the commemoration service that Australians at home and those fighting abroad were working towards victory and peace. "And when peace came some 65 years ago today, it was also a sad time for many.

"So today, ladies and gentlemen, we remember that victory but we also remember those who laid down their lives."

- AAP