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If you can't let go of the past this is not apologizing

Shouldn't he be leaning more to the right than the left?

TamaramaAUG. 15, 2015 - 07:17AM JST Shouldn't he be leaning more to the right than the left?

His right or our right?

Outside of a movie set, this kind of dress-up is unacceptable.

Outside of a movie set, this kind of dress-up is unacceptable.

It is common to see veterans from other countries wearing their uniforms on memorial days, or wearing the medals they earned in combat.

However I agree, this kind of cosplay is wrong.

Hmmm something is not quite right....oh yeah dude you forgot to bring the decapitated head with you.

To some sad inadequates, war is the most exciting thing to have ever happened to them. The man in the picture is the product of too many inadequates' self-limiting reminiscing.

It's only a symbol, by a misguided nationalist. Get over it.

A picture tells a thousand words, and this is what's wrong, and why other nations cannot accept Abe's apology. He and his LDP speak niceties, but their actions or lack of show their true colors. Just imagine if this was Berlin during a similar observance regarding WWII and there was a young guy like this idiot wearing a Waffen SS uniform down to the SS dagger. This clown should have been arrested, but in Japan there aren't any laws that prohibit this type of display. If this idiot wants to show off his machismo he should go do this in China or Korea. Hell go to the Pearl Harbor observance and do this...chicken hawks the lot of them!

If it's part of a 'this is what we did to our young men then, and we must never do it again' - kind of reminiscing, then I can sort of see the point. But at Yasukuni ? No.

YubaruAUG. 15, 2015 - 07:44AM JST It is common to see veterans from other countries wearing their uniforms on memorial days, or wearing the medals they earned in combat.

True, but typically just the "good guys." Yasukuni is a military apologists shrine that glorifies the Pacific-Asian War. His kind of "coplay" is simply wrong.

We've just gone through a recent spasm similar to this with most of the southern states that were part of the Confederacy finally agreeing to stop making official use of the Confederate battle flag. Not entirely analogous, but equally stupid.

TrevorPeaceAUG. 15, 2015 - 08:02AM JST It's only a symbol, by a misguided nationalist. Get over it.

Most Japanese would like to "get over it." It's idiots like him and the uyoku dantai who can't. I feel the same way about Americans who say we must honor Iraq War veterans for "protecting our freedom." Honor the vet for being a pawn in an illegal, unnecessary and strategically wrong war of choice because otherwise at no time in the last 103 years since the War of 1812 has U.S. "freedom" ever been threatened.

"It's only a symbol, by a misguided nationalist. Get over it."

Sure. You would say same if German was dressed as SS for May Day parade?? I think it's in bad taste and doesn't help anyone.

Visitors talk to a man dressed in the uniform of a Japanese imperial army soldier at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Friday ahead of Saturday’s 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War Two.

Would you see people in Nazi uniforms walking around Germany on May 8th? Um, no. The difference in attitudes to WW2 between Japan and Germany is crystal clear

Western European countries have invaded and colonized lots of other countries in fairly recent history. Yet no ones' going to complain if you dress up in a traditional red coat costume or wear a crusaders cross on your t'shirt.

^ if they did at shrine for war criminals, yes people will complain

Neat Duds.

Oh I wish time travel were real. I'd love to send him and those like him back 72 years to the thick of the war and see how long they lasted. For all of their talk and patriotism, I have a feeling they wouldn't be so quick to actually shoot someone, or blow themselves up with their own grenade.

Would you see people in Nazi uniforms walking around Germany on May 8th? Um, no. The difference in attitudes to WW2 between Japan and Germany is crystal clear

Agree with Christopher Glen's comment 100%. What nerve. To dress this way @Yusukuni on this day- of all days.

Japan is such a peace loving nation. Look, nobody objects in the photo.

I keep reading those who say China and Korea should just move on, after all it's been 70 years. Are these same people willing to tell the Japanese people like the man in the picture above to just move on? Rhetorical question.

He is intentionally harming the image of Yasukuni shrine. Nobody knows who he is, and the police can not arrest him just cosplaying like that.

Looks almost like a wax figure to me. My first thought was "How did he escape from Madame Tussauds?"

The Uber Nationalists in their buses dress like this person in the photo. I've seen them in Ochanomizu speaking about how Japan really owns the Korean Peninsula and parts of China and how the government needs to revoke Article 9 in the Japanese Constitution and go and retake these areas, how the Emperor needs to be worshiped as god. That's about what this person in this photo causes me to think. Does he have the right? Certainly. Is such in good taste? No. Silly, this person is, and probably uncaring what anyone else thinks.

The emperor needs to show his appreciation for the easy time his father got after the war, by telling the deluded idiots like the one in this picture to take a hike

Wrong time, wrong place.

A couple of days back there was an article on how Germany is praised for its post-WWII behaviour, and Japan is scorned. This is one reason why -- losers like this knowingly causing trouble not only for Japan through other nations, but I doubt very much these people in the park were impressed by this idiot's need to be seen. Imagine a man walking to an Auschwitz memorial or something dressed as an SS soldier. Can't, can you? because there is nothing the equivalent of such a monument here -- instead, Yasukuni praises Japan for it's wartime actions and houses war criminals, and is proud of it! And second, because guys like this still believe Japan did nothing wrong except lose the war.

Notice his 'sword' is out? I've met guys like this, and his sword is out for the inevitable bad comments he'll get towards his uniform. I'm not saying he'd go so far as to swing it at someone, and obviously it's just one of those swords with no sharpened blade, but to look more menacing and keep any criticism at bay because he wouldn't be able to handle it.

'He is intentionally harming the image of Yasukuni shrine.'

It's pretty hard to imagine anything which could lower the image of Yasukuni any further. Boneheads dressing up in fetish gear don't come close to the 'museum' at this place.

Just like any American or Canadian veteran he fought for his country while the country fought unjust war. He is not to blame for the wrong orders, soldiers job is to follow the orders. American paid mercenary type soldiers that fought in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Libya did exactly that, blindly followed the orders and fought unjust wars. Soldiers job is to be brave and strong not to think and be smart.

paradox: "Just like any American or Canadian veteran he fought for his country while the country fought unjust war."

Ummm... hate to tell you this, but the guy in the photo didn't fight in any war. He is just glorifying the role of the IJA outside a museum known to glorify Japan's acts leading to and during WWII, without mentioning ANYTHING negative about Japan or Japan's atrocities in the war, and it also enshrines thousands of convicted war criminals.

^ maybe guy fought for diapers with wifey

I've just been watching BBC news covering today's events and the reporter at Yasukuni, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, reported seeing a child dressed as a Kamikaze pilot. Surely not?

Visitors talk to a man dressed in the uniform of a Japanese imperial army soldier at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Friday ahead of Saturday’s 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War Two.

Japanophiles are jumping all over China with comments on the article about their reaction to Abe's statement -- critisizing them for not being able to let go of the past. Meanwhile ignoring Japan's own real problems in this area. Guess it is another case of the Japanese rule of "Do as I say, not as I do". And believing China should be more mature about this issue than they themselves are.

it's just one of those swords with no sharpened blade, but to look more menacing and keep any criticism at bay because he wouldn't be able to handle it.

No, it is just a toy. It doesn't even look like a sword. Otherwise he would be arrested. No menacing at all.

Tina is correct. Even dull swords are not allowed to be carried in public. I've been to Yasukuni and seen these guys - they are cardboard and tinfoil swords, or something else not real.

now do us all a favour and stick that Katana in your guts, its the honourable thing to for the atrocities that uniform represents

WTF? At the very least this is in extremely poor taste.

"He is intentionally harming the image of Yasukuni shrine. Nobody knows who he is, and the police can not arrest him just cosplaying like that."

Actually, Tina make a good point. It could be a form of protest against shrine...maybe?? I doubt it...but possible. I wish picture could talk..

In America there are lots of civil war reenactment's people don't get all upset like the gaijin community here. What a bunch of self rightouse liberals posting here. I for one have visited Yasukuni it has a great musuem, see nothing wrong with this man dressing up in a WW2 uniform.

'I for one have visited Yasukuni it has a great musuem, see nothing wrong with this man dressing up in a WW2 uniform.'

When you said Yasukuni 'has a great museum' you lost me completely.

Pat Telzrow is right, I shouldn't criticize the man in uniform.

Jimizo, the museum is for the souls of the shrine, not for you.

'Pat Telzrow is right, I shouldn't criticize the man in uniform.'

Really? You did. Read your post on this thread at 10:30 AM yesterday.

'Jimizo, the museum is for the souls of the shrine, not for you.'

I can think of no greater disrespect to those who were sent to their deaths by the vicious than this appalling museum. It is an insult to the decent people of Japan and those who were sent to their deaths.

Pat TelzrowAUG. 16, 2015 - 10:10AM JST In America there are lots of civil war reenactment's people don't get all upset like the gaijin community here.

True. It's a bizarre hobby and historical remembrance (my cousin used to participate, and he's a piano teacher with an MFA living in Princeton). And outside of the context of slavery, which too many Southerners will try to tell you wasn't the main reason of the war, it is otherwise closer to the historical reenactments you see in the U.K. of various English Civil War battles rather than some deep need to reaffirm that the right side won war (though lost the peace).

Further, all the gaijin posting here are not Americans and some may be unaware that such a thing exists. I think most Americans find it to be a bizarre if not offensive hobby. Though it certainly has no overt political overtones and is never done to intimidate anyone, unlike the uyoku dantain with their sound trucks and blatant racism.

http://www.salon.com/2011/05/08/civil_war_sesquicentennial/

What a bunch of self rightouse liberals posting here. I for one have visited Yasukuni it has a great musuem, see nothing wrong with this man dressing up in a WW2 uniform.

You'd probably have no problem with a museum in Germany or Austria glorifying the SS as well.