Yasukuni as a Wartime Machine

Picture was taken from http://www.univie.ac.at/rel_jap/bilder/yasukuni.jpg

The summer in Japan, especially August 15 when the World War II ended, is the season to pray for people who died in the war. But in the recent years, it became a controversial season to guess the possibility of whether or not Japanese Prime Minister would visit Yasukuni Shrine in the year ever since the former Prime Minister Koizumi had visited there officially a number of times during his Administration, despite massive strong oppositions in and out of Japan. Now talking about whether or not the Prime Minister would and should visit this year is almost like an annual event. We, Japanese people, have been already fed up with this fruitless argument long time ago.

Let me explain briefly the background and history related with Yasukuni Shrine. Yasukuni Shrine is one of the Shinto’s shrines. But it is very special, and should not be underestimated as one of them. During and pre-World War II era, Yasukuni Shrine was used as a war-time spiritual machine to galvanize Japanese people’s spirit to support the Japanese belligerent government at that time. People were taught that their souls would go to Yasukuni Shrine if they died for the soul of Japan and Emperor Hirohito who was thought as living God. They were also taught it was an ideal way to die as Japanese with pride. Therefore, before going to the place where battles took place, soldiers visited Yasukuni Shrine with hope to die beautifully for the country.

This is not the only problem. In 1970s, War Criminal As were enshrined to Yasukuni. Those names include Japanese war-time Prime Minister who irresponsibly did not stop Japanese no-hope war to fight the United States, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

In addition, in Yasukuni, there is a museum showing the history of war-time Japan in the way to “praise” then-Japanese government and war itself in some level. All in all, Yasukuni is seen as a holy place for hawkish right wing people.

Also, visiting Yasukuni is thought as a violation of the constitution which separate Church and State. No matter how the Prime Minister insists his visit is done privately, it is a groundless argument. This is because, virtually, there is no private or unofficial activity of politicians while sitting the post.

With reasons discussed above, there are a number of people who think visiting Yasukuni is very problematic. It is the act to ignore an emotion of relatives and descendants of people who were killed by Japanese military. Visiting Yasukuni was actually one of the reasons there were mass protests against Japan in China, South Korea, etc., a couple of years ago.

However, what Japanese right-wing politicians say is that this is a personal and religious visit, and there is no right of people in other countries to deny the right of religious visiting. Those pro-Yasukuni politicians accuse anti-Yasukuni critics in Japan that it is a sign of being weak to stop to visit there because of criticism coming from the outside of the country.

But I’m pretty sure that they also acknowledge that visiting Yasukuni damage foreign relationships with countries in Far East Asia a lot. But, even though they know how much problematic it is, they keep visiting there and sending flowers there to show the respect to Yasukuni.

Those politicians including the former Prime Minister Koizumi say “Isn’t it bad to show respect to Japanese soldiers who died in WWII?” Wait a minute. Then, what about the respect toward people who were killed by Japanese military? For those people, there is no more disrespectful “political” act than visiting Yasukuni. It is totally understandable that people in China, South Korea, etc. resent such insensitive activity.

Also, I really doubt that those pro-Yasukuni politicians really believe that visiting Yasukuni is a sign of showing respect. I don’t think so. It is, actually, an activity to maintain political supports from cultural conservative groups such as Japan Bereaved Families Association. This group has very strong political connection with the ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many pro-Yasukuni are actually politicians belonging to the LDP. They fear that they would lose political support from them if they stop to visit Yasukuni. Therefore, many people criticize those politicians that their argument of “showing respect” is actually used as an excuse.

Well, if they really want to show their respect to dead soldiers, there are so many other ways to do so, rather than visiting controversial Yasukuni. For example, why can’t they go to other Shinto shrines? Is there any sound argument that Yasukuni is the only “appropriate” shrine that they can pray for soldiers? Why is that?

Also, a recently discovered diary of Emperor Hirohito (he passed away about two decades ago) shows that he actually avoided visiting Yasukuni after Wartime Criminal As were enshrined, considering that visiting would likely destroy relationship with other Asian countries. Even though he didn’t have a political power officially in the current Constitution, he refrained from visiting there, understanding his role as a public figure. How smart he was, especially compared to the current right-wing politicians who keep visiting Yasukuni.

Well, my argument might be largely reflecting the voice of some liberal newspapers such as Asahi Shimbun (<http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200705100059.html>). I admit that. I know I am politically liberal (not too radical, though).

But still, even after reasonably thinking, it is nonsense for those politicians to visit Yasukuni, damaging the foreign relationship so much. There are much more negative effects to visit there than positive, if any at all. Also, I cannot accept their reasoning that visiting Yasukuni is a personal religious activity. It is much more political than religious. I want to say those politicians “Don’t politicize the religion.” People who died in WWII would not want such controversial visits to Yasukuni. It is, actually, disrespectful even to souls of dead soldiers.