The Japan Association of Corporate Executives (in Japanese, Keizai Doyukai) has said, in a written proposal on future Japan-China relations, that Koizumi needs to reconsider his visits to Yasukuni:
When we consider the (constitutional) separation of religion and politics, there seems to be no consensus among the Japanese people whether Yasukuni Shrine is an appropriate place to pledge that we will never again start a war.Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine that honors two million Japanese war dead. Fourteen class-A war criminals who were architects of the Pacific War, none of whom died in war, were secretly added by Yasukuni shrinekeepers in the late 1970s, turning the erstwhile shrine to peace into, for many people, a politically charged symbol of right-wing apologism for Japaense imperial aggression that even the emperor of Japan no longer visits.
Though Koizumi never visited Yasukuni Shrine before becoming prime minister in April 2001, he has visited the Shinto shrine annually since taking office, creating a constant source of friction with China and South Korea.
Koizumi, however, rejects the business lobby's suggestion. When asked by reporters whether he sees the Keizai Doyukai proposal as a message of concern among business leaders regarding bilateral ties with China, he said this:
I know there are those who hold such views...I've heard a lot of calls requesting that I not go (to Yasukuni) out of business considerations. But I have clearly told them that that issue is something different from politics.I think there may be some merit to the argument that Koizumi has a right as a private citizen to visit the shrine, and some may even say that as leader of the nation he has a responsibility to honor Japan's war dead. But to suggest that his visits are not political in any way is specious at best and blatantly dishonest at worst, especially since he never visited the shrine before becoming prime minister.
Futhermore, it was the shrinekeepers themselves who destroyed Yasukuni Shrine as a symbol of peace when these Yasukuni-14 were enshrined. A visit to Yasukuni's Yushukan Museum adjacent to the main shrine, with displays saying, among other things, that the United States forced a peace-loving Japan into war, is further evidence that the so-called "symbol of peace" has been hijacked.
Keizai Doyukai chairman Kakutaro Kitashiro
The Keizai Doyukai proposal says that in order to forge new relations with China, Japan must urgently resume top-level talks that have long been suspended. But, they say, the prime minister's Yasukuni visits are a major obstacle to an early restart of bilateral summits.
Japan needs to honor its war dead, as would any country. But Yasukuni Shrine, through deliberate and calculating acts of its own keepers, has long stopped being the appropriate venue for that to be done at the national level. Japan needs a new shrine of peace and a new place for its leaders to honor war dead, one appropriate for demonstrating to the world that the peace-loving post-war Japan is a nation that understands and accepts responsibility for its past wrongs and will do everything possible to not allow such atrocities to be repeated.
i often wonder ow much of the negative response from china and korea is really a result of the damage caused by japan, and how much is just done for political advantage.
ReplyDeleteDepends. In China the government has a big hand in stirrring up nationalist sentiment, but now fears it will go too far, so tries to damp it down. It's about keeping internal control by providing an enemy to focus on, as well as grappling with Japan for regional influence.
I'm pretty sure there has been a debate on some kind of secular war memorial in Japan for a long time. This would allow for a clean break with the Class-A war criminals, as well as allowing a more balanced view of history. The Hiroshima Peace Museum is very explicit on Japan's colonialism in Asia, and atrocities committed during the invasion of Korea and China.
I'd personally like a new memorial to commemorate the war dead, but present an honest picture of Japan's wartime conduct.