Music: {allcanada} Justin Bieber 'extremely sorry' for war shrine visit

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

{allcanada} Justin Bieber 'extremely sorry' for war shrine visit

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Justin Bieber is apologizing — again.

This time the 20-year-old Canadian pop star is in hot water for visiting Japan’s Yasukuni war shrine during a trip to Tokyo.

Chinese fans and social media users expressed outrage after Bieber posted two Instagram photos of himself praying and posing with a Shinto priest at the controversial site, which honors the 2.5 million Japanese soldiers who died during World War II, including many war criminals.

“Thank you for your blessings,” Bieber wrote in one of the two photos that were later removed.

The Instagram post racked up 666,000 likes before it was taken down at the urging of fans in China and South Korea.

Bieber then issued an apology on Instagram early Wednesday morning, explaining that it was an impromptu visit, and he didn’t realize the shrine was also a war memorial.

“While in Japan I asked my driver to pull over for which I saw a beautiful shrine,” he wrote. “I was misled to think the Shrines were only a place of prayer. To anyone I have offended I am extremely sorry. I love you China and I love you Japan.”

It’s not the first time he’s rankled social media users during a trip abroad. Last April, Bieber set the Internet abuzz after the Anne Frank House revealed he scrawled, “She would have been a belieber,” in the museum’s guest book.

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