HONG KONG, September 6. /TASS/. The visit of Ukraine's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan Sergey Korsunsky to the Yasukuni Shrine has caused a harsh protest in Chinese social networks, the users of which considered this trip an "insult" to China, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper reported.
On September 3, the Ukrainian embassy in Japan published on its X page three pictures of Korsunsky's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which is considered a symbol of Japanese militarism in China and other Asian countries. "We honor the heroes who have died for their homeland," the caption to the photos read. According to the pictures, the ambassador performed a hand washing ritual and also left an entry in the visitors' book. The post on the Ukrainian embassy's X page has already been deleted.
The news spread swiftly across China's Internet space, causing a negative reaction, as September 3 marks the republic's Victory Day of Anti-Japanese War of Resistance, or the 79th anniversary of the end of World War II. The hashtag dedicated to the Ukrainian diplomat gained 86.8 million views in the Chinese Weibo social network (the Chinese analog of Twitter) and became the most mentioned for almost ten hours.
The newspaper reported that many Chinese Internet users found the Ukrainian diplomat's behavior inappropriate. "The Ukrainian ambassador to Japan has insulted China. I no longer support [Ukraine]," the newspaper quoted one of them as saying.
The Yasukuni Shrine preserves lists of names of all Japanese who have died in battles since the mid-19th century. These include war criminals executed after Tokyo's surrender in World War II. For this reason, China, South Korea and other Asian countries perceive visits to Yasukuni by Japanese officials as a justification for Japan's aggression.