Taiwanese Participation in WWII and the Yasukuni Controversy

Nine Taiwanese aborigine tribes participated in WWII as members of the Japanese Empire, but they want to have their ancestors deshrined from the Yasukuni Shrine saying, "We want them brought back home." With all the so-called positive relationship between pro-independence Taiwan and modern Japan, why can't the Japanese government arrange for the release of 28 Taiwanese war criminals and some 28,000 Taiwanese war dead ? A simple administrative procedure would allow that to happen which would win huge support from the Taiwanese and the international community alike.

According to historian Zhou Wanyou ﾅｽﾃｼ窶ｺUﾃ｢w, Academica Sinica 窶吮??窶ｰ窶ｺ硏窶ｹ窶?窶ｰ@, Taiwan, a total of 207,183 Taiwanese individuals served in the IJ military between 1937-1945. (窶佚､ﾃ?s歷ﾅｽjﾅ｡ﾂ､說: 窶楼ﾅｽjﾅｽﾅ?ﾋ?ｪ窶ｹﾃ｣ﾅｽlﾅ津懌?扼 窶氾ｼﾃ｣Sﾂ出窶敕?津ｶﾅｽi ﾃ､i窶徒ﾅｽs 1998 ISBN 957-08-1839-5 The Pictorial History of Taiwan: from the pre-historical period to 1945, Linking Publishing, Taipei)

soldiers:.... 80,433
attaches:. 126,750
dead:........ 30,304

Would it not be in Japan's best interest to give the Taiwanese families the final say, especially if the Japanese government recognises the services of the Taiwanese during the war seriously ? I see no point in Japan's insisting on the forced reasoning that emperor Hirohito had spoken, and that the Taiwanese' request is insufficient reason to change that. A change could be easily enacted by an imperial order from emperor Akihito if formality were the only reason. Otherwise the Japanese government is only excercising arrogance on former victims in a very hurtful way because the blood relationship comes foremost while the Emperor's Confucian ties is a forced, political power forcefully imposed on the familial relationship. With the release of Taiwan 1945, that artificial power should also have dissolved. Japan's insistence might be considered evidence that Japan has ambitions to regain Taiwan at some future point.

Taiwanese Bereaved of WWII Dead Want Them Returned

Wiki: Yasukuni Shrine said:

Also in June 2005, a group of Taiwanese aborigines led by aborigine politician Kao-Chin Su-mei attempted to visit Yasukuni Shrine with the help of the Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace. They represented nine tribes from Taiwan whose ancestors are enshrined at Yasukuni and their intention was to peacefully request the removal of their relatives from the shrine, and to pray for the return of their ancestors' souls. However, they were prevented from entering Yasukuni by Japanese protestors and police. A demonstration was organized by a group of more than one hundred Japanese ultranationalists to block them from the shrine and prevent them from performing spirit-calling religious rituals. Japanese police allowed the ultranationalists to remain on the grounds and helped them block the Taiwanese from leaving their buses, citing measures to prevent clashes between the two groups. After an hour and a half, the Taiwanese group gave up their attempt.

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Yes ,I heard that news~

Not only Japanese ,but also Taiwanese in the Yasukuni Shrine .

Is Yasukuni Shrine a international grave?
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Yasukuni Shrine and the Double Genocide of Taiwan's Indigenous

Prevent Genocide International Archives
News Monitor for July 2004
Taiwan 27 July 2004 (www.zmag.org)

Yasukuni Shrine and the Double Genocide of Taiwan's Indigenous said:

On May 13 2004, the Osaka District Court issued its verdict in one of seven lawsuits filed in response to Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's pilgrimages to Yasukuni Shrine. It was the first case to address Japan's oppression of indigenous peoples and their mandatory enshrinement at Yasukuni during the nation's colonial rule of Taiwan (1895-1945). Chief Justice Yoshikawa Shin'ichi not only dismissed the plaintiffs' petition for reparations, but also came up with a novel way of judging whether the Prime Minister's pilgrimages are public or private.

From 1911 to 1915 the Japanese colonial rulers in Taiwan carried out a policy of ﾂ'native control,' killing indigenous people, seizing their possessions, and burning their homes if they did not submit to Japanese rule.

Their surviving children were indoctrinated in a program of ﾂ'education for native youth' (that is, education to make them Japanese imperial subjects) and, as soon as they were old enough, they were sent to South Pacific battlefields in units called ﾂ'Takasago patriot brigades.'

Why, we wondered, had the plaintiffs in this case come from Taiwan and filed suit as indigenous people ?

Born in 1965, Chiwas Ari is a former singer and actress elected to the Taiwan Legislature "For our ancestors to be enshrined in that place where Prime Minister Koizumi goes to pay homage and thank the war dead for Japan's peace and prosperity--this is an unbearable insult."

In August of 2002, Chiwas Ari traveled with other indigenous people to Yasukuni Shrine and requested the removal of these enshrinements.

The brusque refusal of shrine officials could be said to inflict further injury.

27,863 Taiwanese and 21,181 Koreans are enshrined there.

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I would like to politely propose that the non-Japanese war dead be released for the following reasons.

1) Japan as a modern state with a constitution that protects freedom of religion for the citizens as a natural right cannot allow any part of the government or any legal body with legitmate status force a religious practice on any other citizen or group of citizens.

2) At the time of their deaths, the Taiwanese war dead were Japanese citizens who deserve to excercise the same rights as any other Japanese.

3) As war deads, they are incovnenienced in carrying out their will; hence next of kins, the bereaved Taiwanese family members, are to excercise their freedom of religion on behalf of the dead.

4) Any attempt by the government or courts to override their constitutional rights is illegal and unconstitutional.

In closing, let me simply note; "freedom of religion" does NOT refer to the government's (or the Yasukuny Inc.'s) right to forfeiture or postponement of the individual's right to freedom of religion. This principle works hand in hand with the principle of separation of religion and state, although the perspective might be different. Release the 27,863 Taiwanese, the 21,181 Koreans, and other Non-Japanese from the Yasukuni Shrine !