SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Splits continued among South Korean people over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in their soil on Monday that marks the 71st anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
On one side of the capital Seoul, civic group activists called for the Japanese government's sincere apology and repent over its past militarism.
Under the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule, Korean people suffered from numerous atrocities such as forced recruitment of Korean women as sex slaves for Japanese military brothels and compulsory labor for Japan's munitions factories.
Defying such civilian calls and deep regrets from neighboring countries, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering once again to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of the militaristic Japan as it enshrines 14 Class-A convicted war criminals along with millions of war dead.
On the other side of the capital, thousands of South Koreans gathered to protest against Seoul and Washington's abrupt decision last month to house one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in southeastern South Korea by the end of next year.
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