Kolkata stopover aimed at domestic gallery

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make an important pit stop on his trip to India in the third week of August. He will visit Kolkata, an emotional move aimed at sending a message to his domestic constituency.

"He will probably meet the family of Radha Binod Pal, the only Indian jurist in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East set up after World War II to try Japanese army commanders for war crimes. Pal had put up a spirited defence of the Japanese, including General Tojo Hideki, and said the Allies should also be tried along with the Japanese," said a top government official.

In fact, a 1998 Japanese film, Pride, the Fateful Moment, showed both Tojo and Pal as heroes. In Japan, there is ambiguity with regard to the country's role in WW II and a visit to Pal's family by the Japanese premier is a significant message to his electorate back home.

There is another emotional reason for Abe's visit to Kolkata "" Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. According to government officials, Japan has been trying to send Bose's "ashes" to Kolkata from the Renkoji temple.

"The controversy over whether Bose died in a plane crash or survived and lived incognito in India has ensured that the ashes have remained in the Renkoji temple.

This creates a protocol nightmare every time an Indian minister visits Japan," said the official. Abe, not surprisingly, has expressed a desire to visit Kolkata.