The Contemporary Politics of Japan: why is it so controversial that Prime Minister Koizumi continues to visit Yasukuni Shrine?

Résumé du document

On October 17, 2005, Prime Minister Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine for the fifth time. These visits immediately ignite reactions from China and Korea, with violent demonstrations and official protests. Indeed, each of the Prime Minister's visit to the Shrine is an object of controversy. Yasukuni Shrine is the Japanese equivalent of the tomb of the unknown soldier, which represents all the soldiers who died during wars that Japan was involved in, and the monument is a religious one. But for China and Korea, the Shrine embodies Japanese bloody militarism and imperialism that these two countries suffered from. On the other hand, Koizumi seems not to take in account his neighbours feelings as he continues to visit the Shrine every year.

Extraits

[...] Since then, it commemorates the victims of each war Japan was involved in by performing Shinto (the Japanese religion) rituals for the spirit of these soldiers. At first linked to the State, the Shrine was declared to be a religious institution independent from the government by the US occupation authority; this decision is linked to the article referring to the separation of State and religion in the new Constitution. It currently houses nearly 2.5 millions of war dead. But the Shrine also includes 1000 prisoners of war executed for war crimes during World War Two, and more specifically fourteen Class A War Criminals (among who Hideki Tojo), as they were judged during the Tokyo Trial. [...]

[...] We have seen before that until Koizumi, all Prime Ministers that had visited the Shrine had never done it again after Chinese protests. Why does Koizumi still continue to visit the Shrine every year despite all this? To answer this question, we have first to understand why previous Prime Ministers did not visit the Shrine again, taking the example of Nakasone in 1985. As I said before, Nakasone visited officially the Shrine on the 15th of August, which led to protestations from the leftists but also to the first important reaction from China, and never visited it again. [...]

[...] His successor, Koizumi, declared during the LDP election in April 2001 his intention to visit the shrine on August 15. Learning this, China exerted diplomatic pressure to make Koizumi cancelled his visit. For the first time, Korea protested officially against a Prime Minister visit to the Shrine by a declaration of its ambassador in Tokyo on July 24. The Korean mass media spread the criticisms and several anti-Japanese demonstrations took place. Koizumi eventually decided to do a compromise by visiting the Shrine on the 13th, but that was not enough to calm down China and Korea. [...]

[...] For the rightists, WW2 is merely is the last link in a chain of regional expansion that begun with the annexation of the Ryuku Island in 1879 and ended with the annexation of Manchuria in 1931. Feeling guilt would also mean that the men who participated in these events were potential war criminals, and the Rightists refuse to see their fathers or grand-fathers as criminals; they assume that all the atrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers have been exaggerated. We can distinguish three groups within the Rightists. [...]

[...] These atrocities and Japanese militarism are embodied by Yasukuni Shrine according to Chinese people and more especially since the fourteen war criminals are enshrined inside. China also accuses the Shrine to be a place of right-wing nationalism and revisionism. For example, the Shrine's museum on the history of Japan presents the conquest of East Asia before WW2 as an attempt to preserve the region again the western imperialism, and denies Nanking massacre. More generally, the museum presents Japan as a victim of the western powers: is a really tragic thing to happen, but it was necessary in order for us to protect the independence of Japan and to prosper together with Asian neighbours' ‘[Japanese prisoners of war executed for war crimes were] cruelly and unjustly tried by a sham like tribunal of the Allied Forces', says a pamphlet published by the Shrine. [...]