Yushukan, a museum located inside the Shinto sanctuary, portrays Japan as defending itself against Western colonialists and not as invading neighboring countries, up to 1945.

The museum makes only a passing reference to the massacre in the occupied Chinese city of Nanjing, describing "heavy losses."

Aso, an outspoken hawk, said Monday he did not feel that the museum at the Yasukuni shrine glorifies war. "The exhibition merely shows what happened in those days," Aso said in a television interview.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China was dismayed about the remarks. "We were shocked at the comments," Liu said at a regular briefing.

"The shrine is denying history and is glorifying history."

Liu said Japan should face up to its wartime atrocities with honesty, adding that doing so would be the only way that its relations with its Asian neighbours can be improved.

Japanese troops occupied Nanjing in 1937 and carried out a week-long orgy of murder, rape and destruction. China says some 300,000 civilians were butchered while US-led trials of Japanese war criminals documented some 140,000 victims.

Japan's Junichiro Koizumi has infuriated China and South Korea by going five times while prime minister to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals from World War II.

Koizumi defended his visits again on Saturday by saying he was only paying his respects to war victims and the visit was also an affirmation of Japan's pledge not to wage war again.

Liu reiterated China's long-held opposition to the shrine.

"The shrine is not acceptable to Chinese people and is hurting the foundation of Sino-Japanese relations," he said.

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