politics

Cabinet minister visits Yasukuni shrine

51 Comments
By Charly Triballeau

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51 Comments
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I guess they believe the warped and whitewashed version of history as per Yasukuni.

Stop glorifying your recent past Japan. It's no accident you have not mended relations with your two closest neighbours when the representatives of your government pay respects to the war criminals in defiance.

-5 ( +18 / -23 )

I'd rather like to see this dude with the flag to help the needed ones, now suffering as victims of that typhoon passed by that region...Where is the good image of this picture while the other pictures are most people fighting to live normal life again after the that enormous disasters around.

17 ( +18 / -1 )

Flags, If you aren't burning, you are waving, all for no other purpose than to consolidate a political objective. God, if there is a God save us from this nonsense.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

I wonder why they can't visit the shrine without making a big announcement to the press. Then again, I guess they WANT the voting public to know.

1 ( +14 / -13 )

Photo: AFP

It's always entertaining to watch some fat ugly dudes playing the tough guys. Lol.

-5 ( +13 / -18 )

Repugnant. Visit the national cemetery to pay your respects.

How hysterical would Japanese people be if American politicians visited the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima and waved American flags?

-7 ( +14 / -21 )

Japanese have every right to honor their war dead, no double standards.

I guarantee that many other nation's have war cemeteries with war criminals buried in them.

-4 ( +21 / -25 )

oh boy, just got to keep it all going round and round forever. To just admit, get past it and move on...too much to ask.

15 ( +17 / -2 )

Japans country, Japans right to honor their war victims in any way they wish.

The nations that protest most have shameful histories of war crimes, I guarantee.

-3 ( +22 / -25 )

Unfortunately, Japan isn't a state on the Sun. Japan lives on the earth, and has neighbours, and hurt neighbours in the past, by those who now the ministers honor. Mix the one who died for defending Japan and those who committed crimes on behalf of Japan are two different things, as the Sun and the earth are two different places.

Hopefully the future generations will understand the freedom of expression could be injustice to many others and offensive.

-9 ( +8 / -17 )

I guarantee that many other nation's have war cemeteries with war criminals buried in them.

True, but then against n no-one is buried in Yasukuni Shrine.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

Edit. True, but then again...

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Japans right to honor their war victims

Matsuoka Yosuke, Nagano Osami, General Kenji Doihara, Kōki Hirota, General Seishirō Itagaki, General Heitarō Kimura, Lieutenant General Akira Mutō, and General Hideki Tōjō were NOT victims of the war!

THEY WERE THE PERPETRATORS!!!! They were hung for their crimes or otherwise died AFTER the war.

The sort of garbage of ridiculously trying to rebrand those scumbags as "war victims" is why the hate for Japan never dies!

-2 ( +15 / -17 )

Japans country, Japans right to honor their war victims in any way they wish. 

Hilaruous thst ou use this to justify Japan's repugnance, but then berate China for its actions in Hong Kong. Anyone else smell the hypocrisy?

The nations that protest most have shameful histories of war crimes, I guarantee.

But those nations probably don't deny their war crimes like Japan does. False equivalency.

-12 ( +8 / -20 )

Hopefully the future generations will understand the freedom of expression could be injustice to many others and offensive.

So we should stamp out freedom of expression like Winnie the Xi has done in China? Or, is it Xi the Pooh?

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

I guarantee that many other nation's have war cemeteries with war criminals buried in them.

Ridiculous argument since you pretend to ignore that it is about WWII war criminals. Most if not all nazi criminals were buried in unknown locations and you won't find any church in Germany or France which celebrates them. The real issue with Yasukuni shrine is not the shrine itself but the fact that it is a place where war apologists and xenophobic people come to the shrine to celebrate war criminals because they are enshrined there. Independently of what Korea and China say here, the fact that Japan is allowing this is a shame to the country.

-5 ( +14 / -19 )

The nations that protest most have shameful histories of war crimes, I guarantee.

Read my previous post...

-7 ( +9 / -16 )

Very sad how those millions who fought with courage and died for their country are tarred with the same brush as the few who committed horrendous war crimes.

This is one time when the saying, "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch" is out of context. The vast majority of soldiers at Yasukuni deserve the same respect as the fallen of other nations. But for a few bad apples this would not even be an issue worth discussion.

7 ( +17 / -10 )

daito_hak, agree with you, the fault is on the govt to allow it happen repeatedly. Sometimes, sacrifice one's own desire for the sake of others is a virtue. Future generations will figure it out.

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

I'd rather like to see this dude with the flag to help the needed ones, now suffering as victims of that typhoon passed by that region...Where is the good image of this picture while the other pictures are most people fighting to live normal life again after the that enormous disasters around.

You're mistakening him for someone who truly cares about Japan. This is political BS.

I wonder why they can't visit the shrine without making a big announcement to the press. Then again, I guess they WANT the voting public to know.

Of course. This is about stoking a reaction from the neighbors which in turn gets the Japanese fired up and these idiots reelected.

It's always entertaining to watch some fat ugly dudes playing the tough guys. Lol.

Or the short skinny runts..

Repugnant. Visit the national cemetery to pay your respects.

> How hysterical would Japanese people be if American politicians visited the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima and waved American flags?

Now THAT'S an idea! Everyone, start writing to your local congressman (woman) back home

-12 ( +4 / -16 )

Well what’s next

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Unfortunately, Japan won't face the music when it comes to defeat. And accept it was nearly wiped out as a powerhouse nation. I suppose this is their way of keeping face before the world community.

-9 ( +9 / -18 )

Nationalism is the plague that builds barriers and prejudice against other human beings.

It's 2019,and rather than see this display of past century national-populism we would see these politicians do something concrete and constructive for it's people.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

I hope his actions bring him the deserved dirision that he fausly claims as support

stupidity has no barriers. That's why it's called stupid.

-11 ( +6 / -17 )

Japans country, Japans right to honor their war victims in any way they wish.

ok time to open a memorial for the crew of the "Enola Gay" US politicians should visit it every year and make sure the news networks report on it and send a copy to NHK to play back in Japan. And no Japanese should ever complain about it EVER.

-7 ( +12 / -19 )

Very sad how those millions who fought with courage and died for their country are tarred with the same brush as the few who committed horrendous war crimes.

you can thank the prior head priest of Yasukuni who turned a religious symbol into a political one.

A Head Priest’s Ideological Agenda

The impasse continued until Tsukuba’s sudden death in March 1978. Matsudaira Nagayoshi (1915–2005) was installed as head priest in July that year.

It is worth going over Matsudaira Nagayoshi’s background. His grandfather, Matsudaira Yoshinaga (1828–90), was the feudal lord of the Fukui domain. In the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, Yoshinaga called for a merger of the shogunate and the imperial court. After the shogunate fell, he was granted a position inside the new Meiji government. Matsudaira’s father, Yoshitami (1882–1948), was the last minister of the Imperial Household. Matsudaira himself was a lieutenant commander in the Imperial Navy during World War II and an officer in the Self-Defense Forces after World War II. His father-in-law, Daigo Tadashige, was a vice admiral in the Imperial Navy. He was tried by the Dutch after the war, convicted of Class B and C war crimes, and executed by rifle shot. He is listed among the war dead honored at Yasukuni Shrine.(*6)

Matsudaira unequivocally rejected the verdict of the tribunal and argued that the Tokyo Trials had produced a distorted view of history that cast Japan as the sole villain. He was determined from the outset to enshrine Japan’s Class A war criminals at Yasukuni. This was part of an ideological crusade to discredit the Tokyo Trials. Once appointed, he moved quickly. In a secret ceremony on October 17, 1978—just three months after becoming head priest—he enshrined all 14, including Matsuoka and Nagano.(*7)

When the story broke in April the following year, the public reaction was relatively muted. But controversy erupted with a vengeance six years later, when Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro became the first postwar prime minister to pay homage at the shrine in an official capacity. When Nakasone and his cabinet visited Yasukuni on August 15, 1985 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the end of World War II, the visit unleashed a storm of criticism from Japan’s Asian neighbors. The next year Nakasone agreed not to visit the shrine in deference to the views of Chinese leader Hu Yaobang. From that time on, visits by cabinet officials to Yasukuni Shrine have been a hot-button issue, drawing intense criticism from abroad and stymying diplomatic progress between Japan and its neighbors.

The ultimate source of this ongoing conflict was the enshrinement of Class A war criminals in 1978. And the enshrinement of this group cannot be attributed simply to religious or filial impulses. In fact, it was a blatantly ideological and political act driven by an urge to justify and legitimize a highly controversial chapter in Japanese history.

https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a02404/

-8 ( +10 / -18 )

The bloke in the photo is carrying the wrong flag.  He should be flying the kyokujitsu-ki for maximum effect.

-6 ( +7 / -13 )

The bloke in the photo is carrying the wrong flag. He should be flying the kyokujitsu-ki for maximum effect.

Japanese are masters of deception , he wishes it was the kyokujitsu-ki but uses the Japanese flag as a excuse if he questioned by it . Bit like Abe not visiting Yasukuni personally but sending his wife instead, got to keep the right wing nutters calm

-6 ( +11 / -17 )

@oldman_13

Japanese have every right to honor their war dead, no double standards.

Yes, but not the A-class war-criminals responsible for the death of those war deads, and tens of millions of others nationalities.

Just remove the nameplates of Tojo Hideki and co and Yasukuni is kosher again.

-6 ( +12 / -18 )

dressed up in the sagyo seifuku, guess thats supposed to make it appear he is on some kind of "duty"

This stuff is so old and rinse repeat that its become silly for me to watch

17 ( +17 / -0 )

Nippon Kaigei are getting desperate thankfully their base are dying in huge clusters thankfully like the dinorsors they are extinct soon leaving only a foul taste but not much more.

-5 ( +10 / -15 )

It's always hilarious to see the faces of the losers flag waving at these shrines. As if they think they look hard. Ok buddy, wave it at a bunch of angry South Koreans or Chinese and watch what happens. Tough guy

-3 ( +12 / -15 )

I would not be happy either if Germans wave their flag for their perished in WW2. Nazi ideology caused so much pain to so many people. Today's nationalists are only attention seekers. They would cry like babies if called for duty to fight for their country.

7 ( +13 / -6 )

Very sad how those millions who fought with courage and died for their country are tarred with the same brush as the few who committed horrendous war crimes.

@Peter - if you visit the Yasukuni museum you might change your tune. Nauseating whitewashing of history, portraying Imperial Japan as brave victims of war, whilst ignoring the millions of innocent people tortured and murdered.

-5 ( +11 / -16 )

Very sad how those millions who fought with courage and died for their country are tarred with the same brush as the few who committed horrendous war crimes.

This is one time when the saying, "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch" is out of context. The vast majority of soldiers at Yasukuni deserve the same respect as the fallen of other nations. But for a few bad apples this would not even be an issue worth discussion.

Brilliantly argued, Peter14, brilliantly argued. Really nice to see another voice of reason on here, amongst all the bashers. 99.99999% of Japanese interned in Yasukuni are victims of a horrible war NOT criminals.

-2 ( +9 / -11 )

99.99999% of Japanese interned in Yasukuni are victims of a horrible war NOT criminals.

and once again for the 99999 time its not the average soldier thats the issue its the war criminals.

Answer me this anybody with half a brain, is it fine to prey for the class A war criminals because they are conveniently enshrines with the soldiers that followed their orders. Should we just give them respect even though they were responsible for millions of deaths! The whole problem with Yasukuni is that all those politicians that go there not one states that they disavow the war criminals enshrined there and state they only prey for the soldiers that died, not one of them!. So tell me again do the war criminals get a free pass becuase theyre conveniently enshrines with innocent soldiers obeying orders!?

0 ( +7 / -7 )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

The uyoku (reich wingers) and their vote spamming are about as pathetic as can be. Its these types why Japan lost the war and suffered so many dead in the first place...bunch of narrow minded idiots and losers.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

99.99999% of Japanese interned in Yasukuni are victims of a horrible war NOT criminals.

They are victims of Yasukuni itself which decided to enshrine the criminals that got them killed right with them. You cannot separate them at Yasukuni for they are together as one at Yasukuni. Your problem is with Yasukuni, not us who point out the 1,068 Classes A,B, and C war criminals enshrined there who died AFTER the war, after being convicted, and some died by execution.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I would be fine to have the lambda soldiers honoured - regardless of the country - because they did not have many other choices than die.

But at the same time there should be an equal balanced formal blaming to the ones who sent them to the butchery and killing other people.

Basically, why apologising once for committed atrocities is enough while there is a need to honour pompously every year the ones who committed it?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It's Japan cementery

Yasukuni is NOT a cemetery.

they have the right to honor their dead

They also have a right to be criticized, boycotted and shunned for their horrific choices of who they honor.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

It's Japan cementery, it's Japan land,

As Norm pointed out, Yasukuni is not a cemetery. It's hilarious how Japanese posters trot out the "Japan's land, Japan's culture, Japan's right to . . . " when defending Japan acting repugnantly, but are quick to criticize other countries.

they have the right to honor their dead.. Wipe your years and get over it..

Nah, there is no law or rule that says we can't call out Japan when it acts repugnantly.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

If Yasukuni Shrine is privately owned and acting as a nationalist cult that's fine, but no politician should pay openly any tribute to it.  They should place it somewhere where all nationalists can secretly gather and worship.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I see some here, or I suspect, have had an "experience" with a right wing nutter.

For your sanity, do whatever it takes to avoid them. I have not seen them out

in numbers like I used too, but perhaps thats because I have moved to a more

cleansed area.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The nations that protest most have shameful histories of war crimes, I guarantee.

Oddly, am in agreement with you. But I still think the fetish, or cult of war criminals should be shunned. In any country that does it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Honor the military. They followed orders and fought well.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Interred at Yasukuni and honored there are the memories and spirit of many who fought valiantly for their nation, albeit in a losing cause.

In 2020, plan to visit Yasukuni to check it off my bucket list.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Yasukuni a place where criminals are worshipped. Japan is really unique in worst way

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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