TOKYO, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said 14 Japanese convicted in 1948 by a war crimes tribunal should be referred to as war criminals.
The new leader Friday raised questions about the legitimacy in the Japanese parliament of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal which convicted the 14 as Class-A war criminals, reports Kyodo news agency.
They are enshrined at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which has drawn protest from China and South Korea.
Abe told the Japanese parliament the 14 had stood trial for crimes against peace and humanity. But "based on the principle that crimes and penalties must be defined by law it is ridiculous to call them criminals,'' Abe said in the Kyodo report.
Abe said their families receive benefits as war bereaved and said, ''They are not war criminals under domestic laws.''
