General Toshio Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan's Air Self-Defence Force, had made the comments in an essay which won the top award in an inaugural contest aimed at describing 'true views of modern history'.

'Even now, there are many people who think that our country's 'aggression' caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War,' said the English-language version of the essay.

'But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War,' it said. 'In Thailand, Burma, India, Singapore and Indonesia, the Japan that fought the Greater East Asia War is held in high esteem.

'It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.'

The Greater East Asia War was a term used by Japan to describe the conflict in the Asia-Pacific theatre, emphasising that it involved Asian nations seeking independence from the Western powers.

The essay, entitled Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?, was posted on the website of a Japanese hotel chain which organised the contest.

Japanese media feared it could provoke antipathy from China, the two Koreas and other Asian nations which still have searing memories of Japan's aggression and colonial rule.

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the general's views ran counter to the government's position on Japan's role in World War II, for which it had apologised to people in countries that came under Japanese colonial rule.

'What he said was inappropriate for an air chief of staff. He should not remain in the job,' he told a news conference.

In 1995, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama had issued a statement apologising for Japan's past aggression and colonial rule in Asia.

Current Prime Minister Taro Aso also has conservative views on history but pledged on taking office in September not to upset other nations.

Despite its officially pacifist position, Japan has often come under fire for its perceptions of its wartime past, with neighbours closely watching for any sign of a militarist revival.

China suspended top-level exchanges during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who paid homage each year at Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which honours the Japanese war dead, including top World War II leaders.

Gen Tamogami, who at 60 belongs to Japan's post-war baby boomer generation, had stirred controversy in April when he defended a Japanese airlift operation in Iraq which was ruled unconstitutional by a provincial court.

He also rejected the verdicts of an Allied tribunal which convicted Japanese wartime leaders as war criminals after Tokyo's defeat in 1945.

REUTERS, AGENCE-FRANCE PRESSE