Japan May Need to Rethink Interment of Yasukuni's War Criminals

Japan May Need to Rethink Interment of Yasukuni's War Criminals

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Japan may need to reconsider the interment of convicted war criminals in the Yasukuni Shrine, one of the country's most venerated religious sites, said the chairman of the nation's most powerful business lobby.

The Yasukuni, located in the center of Tokyo, is the focus of Japan's spat with Asian neighbors China and South Korea, which oppose annual visits by Japanese politicians to the shrine. The Yasukuni enshrines 14 convicted war criminals including Hideki Tojo, Japan's military leader during the Second World War.

``The issue isn't visiting the Yasukuni, but to recognize that the war criminals are there,'' said Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, at a press conference today in Tokyo. ``I don't think Prime Minister Koizumi goes to Yasukuni for the wartime criminals.''

Okuda's comment, the first on the matter by Japan's biggest business lobby, comes as relations between Asia's two largest economies have deteriorated to their worst in three decades. Thousands of people march in protest rallies in dozens of Chinese cities last month, destroying property and defacing Japanese shops in protest of the annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last went to the Yasukuni in January last year, a visit seen by China and South Korea as affirming the country's military past. Koizumi said on May 20 that he won't rule out visiting the shrine again. China's Vice Premier Wu Yi, who was visiting Japan last week to smooth over the worst relations in three decades between Asia's two largest economies, canceled a scheduled meeting after Koizumi's comments.

Okuda, also the chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., isnÆt the first to call for a reconsideration of the shrine's interment. Kim Dae Jung, a former president of South Korea and winner of the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize, said removing the Class-A war criminals from Yasukuni would restore Japan's relations with neighboring countries, the Asahi newspaper reported today.

``The most important thing to fix China-Japan relations is for the two prime ministers to hold talks,'' Okuda said today.

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I welcome the news. Although the comment about PM Koizumi's intention not being to worship the 1,068 war criminals of classes A, B, and C enshrined at Yasukuni jinja may be true, the problem remains that Japan's gov'tal leader was insensitive to Imperial Japan's victims is a more serious matter.

I am glad that influential individuals in Japan have started to speak out on the matter with seriousness; I hope this positive move continues in the direction of full recognition by modern Japan of Imperial Japan's responsibilities, and ultimately normal and trusting relationships with countries that were once victimized by Imperial Japan.

Long way to go, Lexico. We need truly understand the Japanese mainstream thinking before we can be any bit optimistic.

Dont worry about me being taken in. My mama raised no fool here.
Do you think I will forgive and forget that easy ?
It has to go all the way. Full acceptance. Nothing less will do.
But I don't hesitate to give support and encouragement. Manipulation raising false hopes can engender even greater anger and bears the danger of even a greater relatiation in the worst case.

Sure, Lexico.

and ultimately normal and trusting relationships with countries that were once victimized by Imperial Japan.

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Most Americans (not all) would say WWII, is just history now. I just think the younger generation in Japan (say less than 35 years old), are tired of this issue. The "Rape Of Nanking", has been reported extensively in the media much in that last several years. The "Unit 731", is also been reported and covered. I agree, it would be better if Yasukuni had no shred of war criminals.

Asia could be the next great economic and political power; South-Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, and India, (with cheap labour in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia), if they would stop bickering and fighting.
_.

If we can work together, what can be better ?

I totally agree with you in sentiment. Dwelling on the past and being affected by the negative aspects can be couterproductive, and this is something we can all admit to regardless of who we are or what we represent. The present and the future has so many challenges to meet, and so many possibilities that we cannot afford to pass. It will be infinitely more satisfying to create rather than to bicker and argue over the past.

Yet if the youths of Japan are tired of discussions over WWII atrocities and postwar culpabilities, would not the youths of Korea, China, Taiwan, Hongkong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. feel both tired and insulted by the Minimalist, Illusionist, Denialist schools of Japan that claim innocence, self-defense, and even victimization by the US/West ? In fact mentioning the US/West as a counterargument is avoiding the question by shifting the subject. If the revisionist school is asking for sympathy for all the suffering of Japan near the end of WWII, it might make some sense. But to use it to evade the question of culpability is purely illogical and insincere; topping it off with 'atrocity never happened' is simply insensitive and irresponsible.

US mainstream views as seen on this forum are those of a victor, and are not taken favorably due to its involvement in the iron and crude oil sales while Imperial Japan was invading East and South East Asia, and considering the prize it got after the war. How do we know it wasn't planned out as a long-term foreign policy to economically provoke Japan to militarily provoke the US by sudden trade sanctions with a mind to putting US in an influential position in East and South East Asia ? The price US paid was not insignificant, yet at least it bought it a major seat in the international-Pacific region. What has the rest of Asia received except loss of opportunities to modernize, loss of +20 million lives, and loss of dignity ? A few bread crumbs doled out in the form of low interest loans ? In fact it's such a low figure that it's infinitely degrading to even consider these as 'compensations' or 'sincere signals of apologies.'

It would help the US for some of us to just shut up and move on, right ? Well the Tokyo Trials did a rather poor job both ways, and excuses after excuses blamed to have forced SCAP to slight over sensitive matters are haunting us to this day. Instead of dropping the A-bomb over Tokyo bay to demonstrate the destructive power of the new weapon, certain people in the US just had to test the forcefulness of the bomb over the 'yellow-skinned' Asian civillians who were 'only one step lower' than Caucasians. What horrible contempt of another race, of human lives of astronomical order. Asking the Japanese to forget it is like asking the Jews to forget the holocaust, or asking the Chinese to forget Najing, Port Arthur, and Unit 731.

If at least the mainstream of Japanese society can admit to the facts of atrocities with sincerity, we could move on. If the atrocities never happened as some revisionists claim, prove it beyond a shed of a doubt so the accusers can just shut up. So many decent minds are being wasted on nothing, but is it really nothing when lives were destroyed ? Lies are difficult to overlook, and truth cannot be put to sleep for the sake of expediency of business.

It will do well for everyone to settle on a reasonable version of history for the time being, and make peace. If the settled version is terribly lacking, we may revise periodically for a more truthful historical account as new research reveals new facts. Let us distinguish between relativist versions of history and blatant apologetics twisting history around as if trying to miscarry a court trial on grounds of technicality. Some of the best sources are known to be in Japan, so why not contribute to historical truth rather than muddying the waters to cover up crimes most modern Japanese did not commit ?