politics

Abe sends ritual offering to Yasukuni shrine

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Abe sent an offering?

He sends money to a shrine and cloth masks to the people of Japan...

18 ( +18 / -0 )

Abe and any PM after moving forward should hold this portion of respects when he is not a symbol of Japan and is an ordinary citizen. The war crimes committed by them were atrocious and unforgivable no despite the numerous years. What that administration did to other smaller neighbors was reprehensive and beyond cruel. What they did by nearly wiping out the Ryukyu kingdom original people is unforgivable. But then the US did the same to the natives indigenous people living in what was their lands, a time when fresh water was fresh, food was plentiful for all tribes and disease was just as common limited to a cold.

12 ( +16 / -4 )

"For the the majority of Japanese politicians, visiting Yasukuni is not about honoring the war dead. It's about using those needless sacrifices for political gain."

NOT.

That's Japan letting all the Word know they're a Sovereign Nation.

Sovereignty, you know, that word that many don't know what it means, yet speak of it in the most inappropriated situations most of the time?

Japan CAN,SHOULD honour their dead.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

old man, so Germany has the right to honor Hitler?

7 ( +33 / -26 )

Cue the loud protests from noisy neighbors...3, 2, 1.....

7 ( +26 / -19 )

Under the current global circumstances who the hell cares if sent or didn't send anything anywhere.

6 ( +18 / -12 )

Good on the PM. He would be a true fool in not honouring the courageous war dead of Japan.

4 ( +15 / -11 )

TomApr. 21  08:33 pm JST

which honors convicted war criminals 

His grand daddy was, but McArthur freed him on humanitarian grounds

No, his grandfather was held but never charged, tried or convicted.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

honouring the courageous war dead of Japan.

For the the majority of Japanese politicians, visiting Yasukuni is not about honoring the war dead. It's about using those needless sacrifices for political gain.

And for the Chinese and Korean politicians who (perhaps rightly in the end) object to these visits, it equally comes down to using their own dead for political gain.

Japan did wrong in the war. That should not be celebrated. And the victims on either side should not be brought to suffer more than they did.

Replace Yasukuni with something else.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

antagonizing his neighbors when his approval rate sinks.

self-conscious much?  He offers ritual trees at the festivals..

3 ( +8 / -5 )

sf2kApr. 21  09:54 pm JST

It's important to know which leaders support a Nazi ideology. You don't honour the war dead by wanting to change Article 9.

Sheer nonsense. Abe can't even enforce a lock down like every other democratic country can.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Bob SneiderApr. 23  05:04 pm JST

Wow, right after Taiwan and mainland China donated a few million facemasks to Japan. Biting the hand that feeds you is never good for diplomacy Japan

Biting whose hand? Taiwan does not make anti-Japan WWII issues part of it's diplomatic policy. And even China, which certainly has in the past, has refrained in the face of it's deteriorated relatuons with the United States. The whole world is in crisis and j-hate trollers just keep going on. lol

1 ( +1 / -0 )

meanwhile, Abe's wife was criticized for visiting a shrine earlier on. Abe should've skipped this visit and used the pandemic as an excuse to prevent the neighbors from protesting.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Just a question: is it not possible to send an offering to the war dead people to another shrine than this highly controversial Yasukuni one?

If not and for sincere and not political objective, can it be done discreetly?

0 ( +4 / -4 )

This will of course get backfire from China and S.Korea, and his public support levels will go up.

Typical politician move.

-1 ( +11 / -12 )

@ Open Minded

Yes, he can go to the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

The Japanese have every right to honor their war dead just like any other nation.

Guarantee a lot of war cemeteries around the world have lots of war criminals buried within them.

No double standards.

-2 ( +29 / -31 )

Wow, right after Taiwan and mainland China donated a few million facemasks to Japan. Biting the hand that feeds you is never good for diplomacy Japan

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

His public support levels, which went plummeting down due to his reaction to corona.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

I'm sure he's praying for another election win.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

It's important to know which leaders support a Nazi ideology. You don't honour the war dead by wanting to change Article 9.

in contrast Hitler's grave is covered by a parking lot

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

The only thing Abe is good at - worshiping criminals. Oh, and one other - antagonizing his neighbors when his approval rate sinks.

-5 ( +16 / -21 )

ALWAYS CAUSING unhappiness. Why ???.

-5 ( +11 / -16 )

Instead of minding outdated memorials

a head of state should focus on trying to mend ties with other countries in the area.

-5 ( +13 / -18 )

We had a former kamikaze pilot working at one of the places where I used to work. Instead of turning himself into a human molotov cocktail, he landed his plane and got out and surrendered. Had to be given asylum in the US after the war.

Later in the war kamikaze pilots had to have their cockpits welded shut, to prevent them from escaping from their planes. The 10% of pilots who changed their minds is hardly ever talked about.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

which honors convicted war criminals 

His grand daddy was, but McArthur freed him on humanitarian grounds. That is ok with me, but what I don't get is how his grandfather kept all his millions and passed them down...to Shinzo himself. Us regular people cannot do that.

But honoring war dead is important even if there are some vermon encased in the cement as well.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

Is it not possible to send an offering to the war dead people to another shrine than this highly controversial Yasukuni one?

Yes, it is possible, and that is why so many foreigners are peeved by Abe's antics. But he and many other Japanese don't want to do that. Plans and proposals for a secular or neutral war memorial for simply remembering the dead - as opposed to glorifying the invasions and conquests that killed 10 million people - have been shot down numerous times over the years by the LDP and its nationalist cronies.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Did he send masks?

In any case, not a wise move on Abe's part, given how much Japan is currently asking of China and desperately needs it to restart Japan's export economy.

-11 ( +12 / -23 )

Fighto!

Didn't quite understand doggar's post huh?

-13 ( +11 / -24 )

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