Inside the hallowed cedar halls of this city’s vast Yasukuni Shrine, 168 Japanese lawmakers and aides gathered on Friday, clapping their hands twice in traditional reverence to the deified souls of Japan’s fallen warriors.
Joined by almost 50,000 other citizens who attended the shrine’s annual spring celebration this week, many of the nation’s top lawmakers bowed and offered Shinto prayers to the divine spirits of the shrine — including a list of more than 1,000 convicted World War II criminals topped by Japan’s wartime prime minister, Gen. Hideki Tojo.