Leafy Yasukuni shrine stirs raw emotions

When the British Forces re-occupied Singapore after the Japanese Imperial Army surrendered, the first thing the British Forces did was to blast the Shinto Shrine built deep in the forest of MacRitchie Reservoir to smithereens, including the bridge that linked it from the golf course at Sime Road. Some fierce battles were fought between the advancing Japanese imperial Army and British Forces at Sime Road before the British surrendered. What was left today are some ceremonial stones made of granite. That Shinto Shrine was constructed by the Japanese Imperial Army when they occupied Singapore during WWII. If it is place of worship, the British need not destroy it.

Cenotaphs in NZ ,Australia, UK, Arlington cemetery in the USA , what do they all have in common? Mao Tse Tung ''s shrine is the worst example of a dictator being venerated. Lenin, Stalin, etc.

Once again , this issue is deeply emotive. One must actually go to Yasukuni Shrine before commenting, As you will return none the wiser. There are many people commemorated there , not only the 14 war criminals. Many Japanese have their own private reasons to visit, just like Americans visiting Arlington cemetery.

Have you asked how many war criminals are buried at Arlington cemetery, or how many are inscripted on cenotaphs? The howls of protest would swamp this server!

The only way forward, in my opinion is for the 14 war criminals to be removed from Yasukuni shrine and its nearby environment.Then other countries should do the same.

When communism eventually fails in China, then Mao Tse Tung' s shrine can also be removed, as he also ranks as one of the worst tyrants in history, with parallels to Lenin,Stalin, etc.

@joe Biggs. I read your comment over breakfast and couldn't stop laughing as I completely agree with you. Very succinct.

As usual the PRC's water internet army is out in full trying to sway a story, sadly for them they are late to dinner once again.

@<<realist,

You mention brainwashing. In what way do you mean? They are brainwashed now with all of the leftwing education and pacifist teaching in the public school system. If this is what you mean, then I agree with you, but if it's because of Yasukuni then you are wrong.

Katsu78<<

This article isn't about the Yushukan War Museum, which you obviously haven't been to. If you have, and say the things that you say, then you really do not know what you are talking about.

At the Smithsonian the Enola Gay is on display as though it was a positive achievement. No mention of the thousands of women and children who died untimely deaths because of it. What about Okinawa, look at the brutality American forces wrought upon defenseless people.

The Yushukan is a factual museum that makes no such claims as you have mentioned. Like I've said, you've never been there, so stop talking as if you have. Chinese people at that time were incapable of governing themselves, they were deserved and had no leadership and no emperor. Proven fact. Mao and Chek didn't unite to solidify the people to fight the Japanese, and left them mostly stranded and without protection and leadership.

The Yushukan is a museum and is located on the same grounds as Yasukuni Shrine, but is not a part of the actual shrine. Again, you seem to sound like a fraud and a misdirected person. I will correct you. I have taken students to the Yushukan to be educated about themselves, their country and the historical legacy of their own people. Your rhetoric is bad for Japan.

@Tony Ew

No. In 2009 DPJ announced in advance that if they won election, they would not visit the shrine. and they won the election by far. Government visiting the shrine or not, is not so important for Japanese when election.

NO, Not Even Close! Which the Exception of Germany, (Which takes FULL responsibility for it's past actions) No other country even comes close to extent and depth to which Japan Brutalized other countries, especially its Asian Neighbors.

Not true

"If Japan has a different perception of history and aggravates the scars of the past, it will be difficult to build future-oriented ties," she said this week.

Absolutely....!

It's a matter of pride and ignorant mass delusional(ism) that's the cause of all of this. Yasukuni is seen as a symbol of Japan's aggression in WW2, but this aggression is merely subjective, since all wars are viewed as aggressive acts by the victims. Many Vietnamese saw America's intervention as an act of aggression, but the American's insisted it was to rid Vietnam of Communism. Japan's military sought to liberate Asia, not enslave it, conquer or destroy it. Acts of murder occur in every war even when the intent is for good. Yet, the Koreans and the Chinese just say Japan was just an aggressor nation out to annihilate them and occupy their country. Pride is a buffer for the ignorant and the poor.

Oh, here we go... This is the same typical response you'll get from an 8-year Japanese boy, when confronted by indisputable evidence that Japan Committed Brutal Acts of Aggression..." Oh, Well Everybody did it, so we're all even..!"

NO, Not Even Close! Which the Exception of Germany, (Which takes FULL responsibility for it's past actions) No other country even comes close to extent and depth to which Japan Brutalized other countries, especially its Asian Neighbors.

@<<Plasticmonkey, the Tokyo Tribunal is the straw man here. Many educated Japanese do not officially recognize the Tokyo Tribunal as a legitimate court. Even Webb's own tacit admission would probably agree with this, the presiding judge over the trial, just in case you didn't know.

It's a matter of pride and ignorant mass delusional(ism) that's the cause of all of this. Yasukuni is seen as a symbol of Japan's aggression in WW2, but this aggression is merely subjective, since all wars are viewed as aggressive acts by the victims. Many Vietnamese saw America's intervention as an act of aggression, but the American's insisted it was to rid Vietnam of Communism. Japan's military sought to liberate Asia, not enslave it, conquer or destroy it. Acts of murder occur in every war even when the intent is for good. Yet, the Koreans and the Chinese just say Japan was just an aggressor nation out to annihilate them and occupy their country. Pride is a buffer for the ignorant and the poor.

The decision to enshrine Class A war criminals was made by Yasukuni head priest Nagayoshi Matsudaira in 1978. He said later, "Class-A war criminals should also be venerated as Japan's spiritual rehabilitation would be impossible unless we rejected the Tokyo tribunal."

Class A war criminals include Iwane Matsui, who led Japanese troops in the slaughter at Nanjing, and Heitaro Kimura, who came up with the idea to work POWs to death building the Burma railway.

The politicians who visit Yasukuni know this well. It is their signal to the victims of Japan's aggression that Japan did no wrong and is not willing to accept responsibility. Even the Emperor Showa was greatly distressed by the enshrinement of war criminals at Yasukuni and never paid a visit. The current emperor has not either. His 'loyal' subjects in government, if they truly respect the sovereign's sentiments, should refrain as well.

@FugacisApr. 27, 2013 - 08:23PM JST

Every year, Emperor Akihito goes to remember and honour those who died in the Second World War, and all other wars in which Japan has been party. He does it at a secular war memorial at the Nippon Budokan.

There is no reason why all those lawmakers had to choose Yasukuni Shrine to make this "tribute", and why they could not accompany the Emperor to the Budokan to make a secular tribute without all the imperialist and militarist baggage that Yasukuni Shrine entails. They do it as a stubborn gesture of militarism, to make a statement that Japan's war was somehow honourable.

Yasukuni Shrine is a relic of State Shinto, a now expunged national religion that viewed the Emperor as a living god and the head of an all-encompassing Japanese "family". It considers every life lost in all of Japan's wars to now be a kami in service of the emperor - including the Taiwanese, Korean and Manchurian imperial subjects that it pressed into service. The shrine officials decided that the 26 class A war criminals had also fought and died "in the service" of Japan. By so doing, they consider war crimes to have been justifiable and honourable.

The families of several Taiwanese - aboriginal and sinitic - and Koreans have made protests to have their relatives disinterred and removed from the shrine. The very wood construction of the shrine itself was made of timber harvested from Taiwan.

To pay tribute at Yasukuni, rather than the National Budokan or just the local shrine or temple where their lost family were registered, is to glorify and reify that national mythology. It is inexcusable and there is no such thing as an apolitical visit there.

Frankly, the place should be torn down, and then maybe Japan can remember its war dead in a healthier way.

Fugacis, I appreciate the detailed info you posted here. Now we get to know where those woods from Taiwan Alishan mountain ended in.

Now we can also see the reason the LDP get to stay in power for so long is by playing the nationalist card. It seems the priests in Yasukuni Shrine have no power to arrange the enshrinement to make it more palatable to China and Korea, even though religion and politics are supposed to be guaranteed separate, without interference under the Constitution. We know around 1972 the 14 Class A Criminals were secretly enshrined in this Shrine done with the LDP ministry. So every election in Japan, the LDP get a boost in power showing up at the Shrine to show their citizens they are a strong party for Japan vs the oppositions. No wonder the 168 lawmakers repeat this well tested formula visiting the Shrine recently. Boy, between Noda and Abe, I rather have Noda!

Hansaram

He might also be referring to history other than world war 2. Do you think that Chinese are taught the full unbiased truth about all the brutality that has happened in their country in the last 50 years? Just one example off the top of my head.

I don't know exactly what he is saying but there are other eastern Asian nations white washing history

Any report that talks about Yasukuni without mentioning the Yushukan war museum is an incomplete report.

In the Yushukan, a train from the Burma death railway is on display as though it was a positive achievement. No honoring is given to the estimated 16,000 POW slave laborers who died in its construction, not to mention the many tens of thousands of Asian laborers who died in the horrific camps the Japanese Imperial army created to fuel its war effort.

The Yushukan creates a narrative that claims Japanese people were never at fault for any bad thing that happened in World War II. It creates a narrative that claims the Imperial Japanese Army invaded China because the Chinese people wanted them to, with the implication being that Chinese people are incapable of governing themselves. It creates the narrative that Japan was forced to invade Pearl Harbor, that the rape of Nanking never happened. It creates the narrative that at every stage of the war Japan was a helpless, passive, peace loving community put upon by all of the other nations of the world. It goes beyond historical revisionism and enters the realm of pure fantasy.

The Yushukan is part of the shrine. It is maintained by the shrine. Every politician who visits Yasukuni without criticism tacitly supports the Yushukan. And yet, no one talks about it. Everyone focuses on imaginary ghosts supposedly being worshipped. Yushukan is bad for the world. Yushukan is bad for Japan. It teaches that a false history where the only possible conclusion is that our actions do not have consequences. It denies Japanese people the right to learn from Japan's past mistakes by pretending those mistakes never happened. And because Yasukuni supports this, that makes Yasukuni bad for Japan. A politician who supports Yasukuni is bad for Japan.

I only hope that rest of the eastern Asian nations can do the same and not white wash history which only prolong the suffering.

May I know what is this white wash history by other eastern Asian nations you referring to?

SamuraiBlue

I only hope that rest of the eastern Asian nations can do the same and not white wash history which only prolong the suffering.

Absolutely agree. Good post, there is more than nation in this country trying to play a game with history.

people of the present should be able to study and analyze in neutrality without any bias learning our mistakes while leaving history in the past.

I missed this too. I really do apologise I think I was to quick to jump to conclusions about a single statement without thinking a little more deeply about the content of the entire post. This is certainly not the black and white issue that some people would like to portray it as. But still time to move on eh from all sides, so we can begin to look at this particular period of history a bit more dispassionately and learn a few lessons from it.

issa1:

" We are so grateful to these men who gave their lives to defend us, "

You are saying the oonvicted war criminals defended you??

PaulJ

As I had posted before;

people of the present should be able to study and analyze in neutrality without any bias learning our mistakes while leaving history in the past.

I only hope that rest of the eastern Asian nations can do the same and not white wash history which only prolong the suffering.

And like I said when enough time has passed and people have moved on it won't be the governments writing the history, the job will rightly go to historians. They are much better at the job.

It doesn't matter who started the war or why it started the fact is that really horrendous things happened. Japan is not the same place as it was then (neither are Britain, Australia or America) and shouldn't have to justify what happened then but they do have to come to terms with it as history. Time to draw a line under that sorry period of history and build towards a more enlightened future. There are so many things to be proud of in this countries post war achievement but it is also pride that stops many people from moving on from this period of insanity, this small blip in the whole of Japan's history which seems to be tarnishing it's entire reputation (unfairly if you ask me). People don't need justifications and excuses, just a willingness to move forward with honesty and sincerity. I really hope that all the nations in this regions can come together in a spirit of peace and reconciliation, after all you are all share so much culture and history that should serve to bind you together in friendship and mutual respect. It doesn't matter what Europe and colonial powers were doing at the time, they have their own demons to face, their own truth to come to terms with and their own reconciliation to make to the former colonies. Yes it is hypocritical when we point our fingers at Japan and at the same time refuse to acknowledge the suffering that our countries' colonial expansions caused to countless people all over the world but that can't be used as justification for what Japan did. As to the question of whether or not Japan helped those countries to gain their freedom from the European powers, I don't think we can say for sure. It may have hastened the process but the truth is that those empires were already breaking before WW2. I apologize if I caused any offence in my previous post. I really think that I misunderstood the tone of what you we trying to stay. The post you have just made is very reasoned and I agree with you up to a point but despite the fact that things may have began in the way that you described they pretty soon got completely out of control and then Japan became as bad as any of the colonial powers in the world. I hope I am making sense here, my thoughts seem to be all over the place.

One more thing. I do think it is unfair that Japan has been the only demonised player in this period of history but like I said it is for the Western powers to face their own demons when the time is right. There are many people that seem to think that Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and Holland etc. have all come to terms with the atrocities in their past and teach real history in their schools but this is simply not true. You can find many horrific deeds buried if you dig a little. But anyway, time for us all to move on or it will never end.

Yasukuni Shrine is founded on lies, deceit and a false history. It represents a "religion" which became so twisted before and during the Second World War that it was used by the fanatical Fascist Right wing in Japan to indoctrinate and brainwash the Japanese people into thinking that they were superior to all other races, that they were made differently from all other people in the world, and that they were born to rule and subjucate all the other Asian nations. It brainswashed the Japanese people into thinking that Emperor Hirohito was a "god" descended from the sun goddess, and if they looked at him, they would be blinded. They were brainwashed into believing that it was honourable to die for the emperor, and many young and deluded Japanese men did just that. To visit the Museum in Yasukuni is to see for yourself the extent and the results of this brinwashing, which is still carried on today by certain politiciians, teachers and Rightists, who deny the evil history of Japan's aggression and brutality. It made me very sad and also very angry to visit the Museum, and indeed the shrine itself, and to see people bowing before an edifice built on lies.

Every year, Emperor Akihito goes to remember and honour those who died in the Second World War, and all other wars in which Japan has been party. He does it at a secular war memorial at the Nippon Budokan.

There is no reason why all those lawmakers had to choose Yasukuni Shrine to make this "tribute", and why they could not accompany the Emperor to the Budokan to make a secular tribute without all the imperialist and militarist baggage that Yasukuni Shrine entails. They do it as a stubborn gesture of militarism, to make a statement that Japan's war was somehow honourable.

Yasukuni Shrine is a relic of State Shinto, a now expunged national religion that viewed the Emperor as a living god and the head of an all-encompassing Japanese "family". It considers every life lost in all of Japan's wars to now be a kami in service of the emperor - including the Taiwanese, Korean and Manchurian imperial subjects that it pressed into service. The shrine officials decided that the 26 class A war criminals had also fought and died "in the service" of Japan. By so doing, they consider war crimes to have been justifiable and honourable.

The families of several Taiwanese - aboriginal and sinitic - and Koreans have made protests to have their relatives disinterred and removed from the shrine. The very wood construction of the shrine itself was made of timber harvested from Taiwan.

To pay tribute at Yasukuni, rather than the National Budokan or just the local shrine or temple where their lost family were registered, is to glorify and reify that national mythology. It is inexcusable and there is no such thing as an apolitical visit there.

Frankly, the place should be torn down, and then maybe Japan can remember its war dead in a healthier way.

Just remember that it isn't only the dead of WW2 honoured here, but also WW1 and before. In WW1 the Imperial Japanese Army fought on the side of the Allies against Germany. Yes the 14 should be honoured somewhere else, but every country has a place to remember the dead of past wars... even the Germans have graveyards full of their WW2 dead.

@JoeBigs

If you have proof please provide it,

Read my previous post more carefully and think about it. Does Germany have a Nazi shrine that pays tribute to all its military dead? As the National Socialist Party was the spiritual center of Germany's crimes, so was State Shinto the spiritual center for Japan's nationalistic folly. Yasukuni was Valhalla for the worshippers of the emperor and supporters of the empire's chauvinism.

Surely there is a way to remember the victims of the war without connecting it to Yasukuni.

@Justin Everett

You do know that the shrine honors civilians and military alike going back to the Boshin War which ended the Shogunate, don't you?

Yeah. So? Are you implying a cultural tradition that everyone's supposed to respect?

Remember that there is a sizable number of Japanese for whom Yasukuni is not an honorable heritage. It is not merely an issue for whiny foreigners.

Japan's history is stained with atrocities but then how many nations can proudly say theirs are not?

That is a very good point and true but you can't use it to justify and obfuscate what Japan did.

I should hope that once enough time has passed that it is historians that write history, after all the name suggests that it is their job.

UpgrayeddApr. 27, 2013 - 01:23PM JST The shrine "museum".

Oh, okay so now it's not in the shrine, it's in the museum?

Okay, so you have seen these so called tributes to the Class A war criminals at the museum? Please, where exactly in the museum did you see these tributes/Justifications.

I have a floor map so tell where you saw them.

As I stated before I will not hold my breath for your locale.

Japan's history is stained with atrocities but then how many nations can proudly say theirs are not?

History is not written by the victors since fact is written neutrally but interpretation of history is vastly swayed by the victors so they can wash their hands of any wrong deeds they participated to gain victory. We the people of the present should be able to study and analyze in neutrality without any bias learning our mistakes while leaving history in the past.

Nice shrine! I actually haven't visited it in the many years I live here. Need to catch up on that sometime.

Funny, I have been to the shrine on various occations and have never seen any form of justification or anything that tributes any atrocities.

If you have proof please provide it, heck tell me where you saw it and the next time I go there I will make sure to look for your so called proof.

The shrine "museum".

plasticmonkey

You do know that the shrine honors civilians and military alike going back to the Boshin War which ended the Shogunate, don't you?

plasticmonkeyApr. 27, 2013 - 08:38AM JST As far as I know, there is no shrine in South Korea that collectively justifies and pays tribute to such atrocities. As Yasukuni does.

Funny, I have been to the shrine on various occations and have never seen any form of justification or anything that tributes any atrocities.

If you have proof please provide it, heck tell me where you saw it and the next time I go there I will make sure to look for your so called proof.

But as with most of these types of baseless claims I will not hold my breath waiting for you to reply.

When people say without these men who are enshrined modern Japan doesn't exist, I think they mean it like in a sense of sacrifice. I don't think they mean like these men build what Japan is today. These men are one of the element that build Japanese society but they are so by dying for country. If Japan had not been in war and not occupied by US, who knows, she might ended up like current N Korea. She might still be fascist country. Because these men went war, lost lives and Japan lost war, current Japan is the way they are. I think that is how it works for them.

I've enshrined the war criminals in my toilet at home, but don't tell the fascists.

Yasukuni is a sacred place for the Japanese people. We are so grateful to these men who gave their lives to defend us,without them maybe japan we know today would not exist.

@plasticmonkey

Thank you sir! I appreciate your actual 'boots on the ground' and see what really goes on beneath the calm exterior. I hope plenty of Americans esp those from Pearl Harbor generations and their descendants visit this Yasukuni Shrine or better yet, get some US Congressmen, even POTUS/Kerry/Biden, or I forgot, Gen Dempsey, he is near Tokyo, why not show up at the Shrine! He will be given a guided tour, hope he ask pointed questions!

I don't mean to insult the sanctity of the Shrine, what I and many of us 'illiterate people' don't get it is why those 14 Class A Criminals cannot be enshrined in a 'special corner' in the Shrine, out of sight to the lawmakers if they are really visiting the Shrine to pay respect to the other 2 million plus Japanese war dead. Why commingle them to insult the Koreans and Chinese? We can infer they actually have more interest in paying respect to those 14 guys than the other couple of millions if this keeps going on and on and on, for political gains. I must have hit a very very very sensitive nerve!

What a strange headline- is the "leafy" really necessary.

I've been there many times and find the grounds quite beautiful, especially during cherry blossom season. There are some summer festivals, too, worth seeing. I find, when going to places like this, that it is best to leave one's emotional baggage outside. Then you can appreciate the serenity.

Obviously you've never been there. There is nothing at he shrine or museum that "justifies and pays tribute to atrocities". Sheer nonsense.

I have been there many times. While there is no explicit wording that justifies or pays tribute to Japanese atrocities, there is implicit but obvious support for what happened. The museum makes much of a revisionist view of history in which Japan was one the one hand 'forced' into the war, and on the other hand a benevolent 'liberator' of Asian people. Both views are warped. And if you consider again the fact that Yasukuni as a shrine was a driving force behind Japan's bigoted sadism during the war years and then converted (by the political right) into a center for stubborn war justification in the years after (including the warm embrace of even the cruelest of war criminals), there is clearly implicit sanctioning of the worst chapters in Japan's history.

If you don't trust me on that, go to Yasukuni and talk with a few of the faithful in their military costumes about Nanjing, Bataan, or Manila. You'll be beaten to a pulp.

articles like this always fail to mention that many japanese hate yasukuni for the part it played in killing their families

"They fought to protect Japan. And it is thanks to them that we live in a prosperous time today" how ignorant can you be,

though fought because they were brainwashed into it, Japan is prosperous today because the US gave back the control of Japan to her, where a democratic government was put in place so Japan could choose who leads them and not have a living god dictate what they do.

plasticmonkeyApr. 27, 2013 - 08:38AM JST "what about atrocities committed by South Korean troops" As far as I know, there is no shrine in South Korea that collectively justifies and pays tribute to such atrocities. As >Yasukuni does.

Obviously you've never been there. There is nothing at he shrine or museum that "justifies and pays tribute to atrocities". Sheer nonsense.

When you come to pray for your ancestors at a large Shinto shrine thoroughly associated with militarism and nationalism instead of at the grave plot or shrine dedicated to that person in your own home, local graveyard or Buddhist temple then it takes on the hue of prayer for the collective and their cause. That may be rationalised as "protecting Japan" or even for world peace but it misses out the salient points of aggression and invasion which Yasukuni lauded.

The Shrine was erected, as a symbol, as a national shrine, for the dead, for those individuals who fought in the name of the nation. It represents, more then politics, for it incorporates the national sensibilities of honoring the dead. To condemn the millions of lives that is represented, as protector of this nation, because of the actions of the few, is pure political expediency.

a few? it is in the nature of politics to use statistics as moral, ethical justification, not factual proof. Indeed, we japanese did commit atrocities, but i dare say it is right, to condemn every single soldier who has died for his family, for his town, for his nation, as criminals, akin to those who were hang, by the accords of the tribunal.

If mankind cannot forgo, contentious issues of history, regardless of domestic or foreign influence, incurred in any instance, for the sake of the peace, prosperity and posterity of our fellow man, then the coming generations who will suffer the consequences, will spit at our graves, and condemn us, for our childish, in the face of adversity, that which we can seldom imagine.

what about atrocities committed by South Korean troops

As far as I know, there is no shrine in South Korea that collectively justifies and pays tribute to such atrocities. As Yasukuni does.

is part of a ritual far removed from politics.

Nonsense. Yasukuni is purely political, and always has been. It was the center of the State Shinto that fueled zeal for totalitarianism and war, and today its existence is primarily to deny Japan's wrongdoing across Asia during the 30s and 40s. The Class A war criminals were not originally included, but were deliberately (and secretly) enshrined in the 1970s at the request of the LDP. Not political?

Just listen to this "ordinary" Japanese:

They fought to protect Japan.

They fought because they were duped. There is nothing to be honored in that war.

South Korea Talks about atrocities during WWII, but what about atrocities committed by South Korean troops during the Viet Nam War.

Binh Hoa massacre

Binh Tai Massacre

Dien Nien-Phuoc Binh Massacre

Go Dai Massacre

Ha My Massacre

Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre

Tay Vinh Massacre

Vinh Xuan massacre

And one shouldn't forget the thousands of civillians (mainly women, children and the elderly) massacred by South Korean forces during the Korean War.