Yasukuni shrine

The Yasukuni shrine is the shrine that has become so incredibly controversial in Japan. It's a shrine to Japan's war dead, but when a government official, especially the prime minister, visits the shrine China objects along with other countries, since they interpret this as a refusal of Japan to acknowledge their atrocities in WWII (counting the invasion of China, starting in 1931, as part of the war.)

The book Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History (2002) has an excellent section on the shrine.

”The Yasukuni Shrine was constructed by the Meiji government at Kudan, Tokyo, across from the northern part of the Imperial Palace, following a decree from the Meiji emperor in 1869. As indicated in the original name for the shrine, “Tokyo Shrine to Call Back the Souls of t he Deceased”, the purpose was to enshrine some 3,588 souls of deceased soldiers who had fought for the imperial “restoration” during the famous Boshin War. These soldiers were later joined by those who died during the civil wars immediately before and after the Meiji “Restoration” such as Saga-no-ran and the Seinan War, as well as those who died during Japan's invasions of Taiwan and Korea, the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and World War II. The shrine honors not only soldiers but also women and children who died in service to the country, such as women nurses caring for wounded soldiers on the battlefield. Enshrined also are three Englishmen whose ship was sunk by Russians off Okino-shima in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese war. In 1979, in a little-publicized ritual, General Tojo Hideki and other war criminals were enshrined. Today, of the total of 2,466,000 souls enshrined, 57,000 are women and 1,068 are 'war criminals' of World War II.”

And therein lies the problem. The enshrinement of the war criminals was what set off the other Asian nations. Without them there probably wouldn't be much of any protest when Japanese prime ministers visited the site, but by enshrining the war criminals there Japan managed to find a way to constantly remind the other Asian nations of just what Japan's role was in WWII and how they invaded China, have taken over Korea and/or invaded the country at various times, and how they performed certain atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking.

Fortunately, the book then next considers what the criteria are for being enshrined at the memorial, and it's not a simple thing to figure out.

”The criteria for selecting who gets to be enshrined have, from the beginning, never been disclosed. However, the criteria must have changed over time. Initially, starting with the soldiers who died for the emperor at the time of the Meiji “Restoration,” the state was primarily concerned with the need to appease the souls of the dead. Japanese belief that the souls of the dead must be properly treated lest they inflict some misfortune on the living. ... But as militarism intensified, enshrinement at the Yasukuni Shrine took on the role of celebrating war heroes as a strategy to encourage soldiers to die for the emperor.”

”At any rate, the shrine was built at a time when many shrines throughout Japan were performing rituals for the souls of the soldiers who died in the turbulent period before and after the Meiji 'Restoration.' The government requested regional governments to submit lists of soldiers who died fighting for the emperor in order to console their souls at the newly erected national shrine.”

”The other intent of the government was to make national heroes of those fallen soldiers who fought on the side of the new government, while branding those who fought against it as zoku (enemies/bandits.) “

It's also to see just how there is no simple solution to the problem of protests about the shrine. If the government officials stop going to the shrine then the Japanese would complain. If the war criminals were removed and enshrined elsewhere then the Japanese would probably feel that they had caved in to the protests of other Asian nations. Yet as long as the war criminals are interred at the shrine and as long as the government people visit there, then there will be protests from China and other countries.

Although World War II is over half-a-century in the past the feelings about it still remain strong. One simple way of noticing this is to check just how many books are still being published about Japanese “death camps,” “Unit 731” and the Rape of Nanking. Things are also complicated by a strong nationalistic element in Japan, some of whom deny there was ever a Rape of Nanking or that Japan really did anything wrong in the extended version of World War II. (I call it an “extended” version since I'm adding the attack on China which makes the war really date from 1931 to 1945.”)

It's definitely not an easy problem to figure out a solution for and it's a problem that appears even today in Japanese newspapers covering Chinese protests about the site.

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