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The Yasukuni Shrine (靖國神社 lit. pacify nation) is a
Shinto shrine in
Tokyo,
Japan built in
1869 to commemorate those who died fighting for Japan. It now is the
resting place of thousands of Japanese soldiers killed between
1853 and
1945, and its Book of Souls lists the names of approximately
2.5 million soldiers.
The shrine has become increasingly embroiled in controversy as a symbol
of the
Japanese colonialism and nationalism of the early
20th century, a controversy stirred up partly by the shrine's
continuing defense of Japanese colonial acts as necessary and justified: a
pamphlet published by the shrine says "War is a really tragic thing to
happen, but it was necessary in order for us to protect the independence
of Japan and to prosper together with Asian neighbors." The shrine runs a
museum on the military history of Japan. The largest part of the
museum is spent on justifying Japan's former
colonial policies in
Asia and on denying it committed
war crimes such as the
rape of Nanking, in a blatant example of
revisionism. The shrine is a focal point for Japanese
World War II veterans, and right wing movements, and provides access
to its facilities on a regular basis. The museum also contains a section
on
kamikaze pilots and has some interesting pieces of military hardware
such as a
Zero fighter.
This controversy exploded openly in
1978, when the remains of 1,068 convicted
war criminals were secretly moved there. Among these were 13 notorious
Class A war criminals, including
Hideki Tojo. The shrine has further angered many with its defiant
defense of the war criminals; the same pamphlet mentioned above also
claims: "Some 1,068 people, who were wrongly accused as war criminals by
the
Allied court, were enshrined here." The shrine's English-language
website refers to those 1,068 as the "'Martyrs of
Showa' who were cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a
sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces."
The controversial nature of the shrine has figured largely in both
domestic Japanese politics and the country's relations with other countres
in the region in the years since 1978. Three Japanese
prime ministers have caused an uproar by visiting the shrine since
then:
Yasuhiro Nakasone in
1985,
Ryutaro Hashimoto in
1996, and especially
Junichiro Koizumi, who visited four times, in
2001,
2002,
2003 and
2004. Visits by prime ministers to the shrine generally provoke
official condemnation by nations in the region, especially
China and
South Korea, as they are seen as condoning Japan's military aggression
against those nations during
World War II. Visits to the shrine also are controversial in the
domestic debate over the proper role of religion in government: some wish
to restore government ownership of the religious shrine, while others
would like a non-religious memorial to be built for Japan's military dead
so that those wishing to honor them do not have to go to the Yasukuni
Shrine.
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