ニューヨーク・タイムズ紙が18日付社説で、小泉首相の靖国神社参拝を「東京の無意味な挑発」「日本の軍国主義の最悪の伝統を容認した」と厳しく批判。

あれこれ言い訳してみても、通用しないものは通用しない、ということです。

米ＮＹタイムズ紙、靖国参拝は「無意味な挑発」（朝日新聞）

米ＮＹタイムズ紙、靖国参拝は「無意味な挑発」
[asahi.com 2005年10月19日11時14分]

　米紙ニューヨーク・タイムズは１８日付の社説で「東京の無意味な挑発」と題し、小泉首相が靖国神社参拝によって「日本の軍国主義の最悪の伝統を容認した」と厳しく批判した。
　同紙はこの社説で、参拝は「日本の戦争犯罪によって犠牲になった人々の子孫に対する計算ずくの侮辱だ」と述べた。「日本が帝国主義的な征服の道に再び向かうとは誰も懸念していない」としつつも、日中の経済的結びつきなどを挙げて「現在は隣国での悪夢を呼び覚ますのには最悪の時期だ」と分析。「日本は誉れある２１世紀を迎えられるよう、今こそ２０世紀の歴史に向き合うべきだ」と結論づけた。
　米国の知日派はもちろん、ブッシュ政権内でも小泉首相の靖国神社参拝を評価する意見は皆無といっていい。何の戦略もなしに日中、日韓関係をいたずらに悪化させることは東アジアを不安定にし、６者協議などに悪影響を与えかねず、米国の国益をも損なうからだ。国務省も「対話を通じた解決を」（マコーマック報道官）と日本を含めた関係国に呼びかけている。ニューヨーク・タイムズ紙は日本の歴史認識問題に厳しい態度をとってきたが、この日の社説はこうした米国内の見方を代弁したものと言える。

こっちが、ニューヨークタイムズ紙の社説そのもの。

Pointless Provocation in Tokyo – New York Times

October 18, 2005
Editorial
Pointless Provocation in Tokyo

Fresh from an election that showcased him as a modernizing reformer, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan has now made a point of publicly embracing the worst traditions of Japanese militarism. Yesterday he made a nationally televised visit to a memorial in central Tokyo called the Yasukuni Shrine. But Yasukuni is not merely a memorial to Japan's 2.5 million war dead. The shrine and its accompanying museum promote an unapologetic view of Japan's atrocity-scarred rampages through Korea, much of China and Southeast Asia during the first few decades of the 20th century. Among those memorialized and worshiped as deities in an annual festival beginning this week are 14 Class A war criminals who were tried, convicted and executed.

The shrine visit is a calculated affront to the descendants of those victimized by Japanese war crimes, as the leaders of China, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore quickly made clear. Mr. Koizumi clearly knew what he was doing. He has now visited the shrine in each of the last four years, brushing aside repeated protests by Asian diplomats and, this time, an adverse judgment from a Japanese court.

No one realistically worries about today's Japan re-embarking on the road of imperial conquest. But Japan, Asia's richest, most economically powerful and technologically advanced nation, is shedding some of the military and foreign policy restraints it has observed for the past 60 years.

This is exactly the wrong time to be stirring up nightmare memories among the neighbors. Such provocations seem particularly gratuitous in an era that has seen an economically booming China become Japan's most critical economic partner and its biggest geopolitical challenge.

Mr. Koizumi's shrine visits draw praise from the right-wing nationalists who form a significant component of his Liberal Democratic Party. Instead of appeasing this group, Mr. Koizumi needs to face them down, just as he successfully faced down the party reactionaries who opposed his postal privatization plan. It is time for Japan to face up to its history in the 20th century so that it can move honorably into the 21st.