Four Cabinet members including three politicians close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

While Abe himself did not go to the Shinto shrine in Tokyo--and only made a ritual offering of a branch of a sacred “sakaki” tree--the trips to a place associated with Japan’s wartime militarism by his ministers on Aug. 15 have raised serious questions about his administration’s outlook on history.

Three ministers viewed as Abe confidants--Sanae Takaichi, the internal affairs minister, Koichi Hagiuda, the education minister, and Seiichi Eto, the state minister in charge of Okinawa and Northern Territories affairs--as well as Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi worshipped at the shrine.

It was the first time in four years that a sitting Cabinet member visited the shrine on the anniversary of the day the war ended. Takaichi and Eto also visited the shrine during its annual autumn festival last year.

There are no signs that Abe tried to caution them against taking the action, which could cause a stir.

Nobody should be criticized for praying for the war dead. But a Japanese political leader’s visit to what was the core facility of State Shinto, which supported Japan’s wartime militarism, has serious political and diplomatic implications that are completely different from worshipping at the shrine by bereft families and ordinary citizens.

More than a dozen Class-A war criminals who were held responsible for Japan’s reckless war at the Tokyo war crimes tribunal are honored there alongside Japan's war dead.

The acts of the ministers are inevitably viewed by other countries, especially the neighbors that were invaded by Japan, as a sign that Japan is now oblivious to its wartime past and seeking to justify its prewar history.

Abe himself has not visited the shrine since the end of 2013, when he made his only trip there as Japan’s leader. He has avoided a pilgrimage to the shrine apparently out of concerns about its effects on Japan’s relations with its neighbors.

If, however, he continues allowing his ministers to do so, Abe will be believed to be making a spurious gesture that does not reflect his views on history.

In another troubling signal, Abe’s address at a government memorial service in Tokyo for the war dead on Aug. 15 did not include the word “history.”

When he was serving his first tenure as prime minister in 2007, Abe, like his predecessors, referred to the “tremendous damage and suffering” Japan inflicted on people in many Asian countries and expressed “feelings of profound remorse and sincere mourning for all victims of the war.”

Since he returned to power in 2012, however, Abe has never mentioned these facts and feelings at the annual ceremonies.

Even so, Abe at least spoke about “history” in his addresses until last year, albeit in different expressions, such as “humbly facing history,” “face the history squarely” and “taking the lessons of history deeply into our hearts.” The word, however, was missing from this year’s speech.

Instead, Abe referred to “proactive contribution to peace,” the phrase he has used to describe the guiding principles for his foreign and national security policies. He talked about Japan’s determination to make greater contributions than in the past to the efforts to solve global challenges in line with this credo.

Abe’s intentions in making the change are not clear and he might say that he only stressed the future orientation of his foreign policy agenda.

But it is hard not to be concerned given that the Abe administration has used the slogan “proactive pacifism” as it has pushed through such security policy initiatives as enabling Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense under certain circumstances and abolishing the three principles concerning arms exports.

With the ranks of people who had firsthand experiences of the war shrinking, the nation’s collective memories of the conflict are fading. This situation makes it all the more important for Japan to confront its wartime past.

In his statement issued five years ago to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, Abe said, “We must learn from the lessons of history the wisdom for our future.” Has he forgotten these words of his own?

 --The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 16