Former US President George H. W. Bush yesterday criticized some Japanese
for twisting their country's history during World War II (WWII).
Addressing a forum on Chinese science and humanities science in Beijing, Bush
said the shrine, which honors Japanese war criminals along with other war dead,
distorts WWII history.
Bush, a WWII veteran, criticized the repeated visit to the shrine by former
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
The materials on the war displayed in the shrine are "deviated from history",
he said.
"Our country was attacked -- openly, aggressively, surprisingly by Japan on
Dec. 7, 1941, so they ought not to try to deny history," Bush said.
"I think a country, when it makes mistakes like that, should admit them and
should work to calm the troubled waters and not exacerbate as Prime Minister
Koizumi did when he went to the shrine," Bush said.
As for China, Bush said, the Japanese "did insufferably bad things to the
Chinese people.
