The Yasukuni

The Yasukuni Shrine, located in Tokyo, was created to honor the dead who served Japan during times of war. It remains shrouded in controversy influencing the geopolitical dynamic of Southeast Asia, and preventing the spirits of the Japanese war dead from finding the rest they deserve.

Established at the end of the Boshin War that began the Meiji Era of Japan, Yasukuni Shrine was created to honor the dead who served Japan during times of war. Despite the equal treatment of names among the dead, the shrine has been shrouded in controversy due to the names of the fourteen Class-A war criminals that were enshrined within Yasukuni, as well as attempts to nationalize the shrine. The controversy influences current geopolitical relationships, especially between South Korea, and China. Yasukuni, however, is ultimately a religious site that has the responsibility of ensuring that the spirits of the Japanese war dead find rest, which seems impossible in light of the ongoing controversies.

Yasukuni is dedicated to those who served Japan in a military capacity regardless of their actions during the war; the dead are not revered for their actions beyond their shared military service. To the south of Yasukuni’s Honden, or main hall, is a smaller spirit pacification shrine or Chinreisha that is dedicated to all the dead from World War II (WWII), not just military servicemen or those who died in service to the emperor unlike those enshrined within the Honden. This marks Yasukuni as a true WWII memorial in spite of its service to the dead before the conflict as well.

As mentioned earlier, there are fourteen enshrined names who were military and government leaders that were tried by a military tribunal during the Tokyo Trials and found to be Class-A war criminals and were supposedly barred from being honored at Yasukuni. The relationship between Japan and the rest of Southeast Asia has been strained since the revelation that Yasukuni had enshrined these fourteen names in secret as described by The Japan Times in 2007: “Among the documents are lists dated from Jan. 31, 1969, presented at a meeting between shrine officials and the then Health and Welfare Ministry of people who could be enshrined at Yasukuni and the document says the shrine and the ministry shared the view that Class-A war criminals are “able to be honored.” The ministry and the shrine also agreed not to make public the idea that Yasukuni would enshrine the war criminals, a decision that appears to be linked to the constitutional issue of state and religion remaining separate.”

The resultant controversy has befallen on any government official visiting the shrine in an official capacity. The conspiracy between Health and Welfare Ministry officials with the Yasukuni officials is viewed as a direct violation of Japan’s Constitution. During the Allied forces occupation, Yasukuni was under threat of demolition as part of concern that the Shinto shrine was the reason behind the Japanese military’s radicalization. However, due to a Catholic priest’s efforts, Yasukuni remained standing, thus protecting the historic site as well as respecting the religious significance of the shrine itself.

The shrine’s controversies did not begin on the international stage. Instead, controversies began within Japan in 1969 when members of the Japanese Liberal Democratic party attempted to renationalize the shrine, which would go against the Japanese constitution. Without the shrine being nationalized, the Japanese government has no say in who is enshrined within but this fact does not shield the government from these controversies. The international implications of honoring those who were responsible for the Japanese’s war of aggression across Southeast Asia and the Pacific are significant. Once the news broke that Yasukuni had enshrined the fourteen Class-A war criminals broke, international tensions within Southeast Asia rose. This was primarily centered on confronting the Japanese collective memory about their past as noted by Fujita and Kusano: “Indeed, there have been calls in China and South Korea, both former victims, for Japan, the former perpetrator, to follow Germany’s example in confronting its colonial and wartime history. Controversy over Japan’s past and its remembrance thereof, its so-called history problem, has become fiercer than ever, often causing Tokyo’s relationships with China and South Korea to worsen.”

The shrine became a lightning rod of controversy as the Japanese memory of WWII came under both international and national scrutiny. The controversies polarized the Japanese people, typically along political lines with the nationalists wanting a return to a strong Japan and the progressives who want to recognize what happened in the past and move past it. Due to international relations and the view of the shrine in the Southeast Asian region, the shrine has been under attack for various reasons including a 2015 bombing attack by a South Korean national.

The Yasukuni Shrine and the Hiroshima monument represents opposite ends of the spectrum of the Japanese experience of World War II (WWII); Hiroshima as a remembrance of Japan as a victim and Yasukuni as a celebration of militarization. Where Hiroshima focuses on peace, the museum attached to Yasukuni, the Yushukan, focuses on war and Japanese exceptionalism. The Yushukan museum sanitizes the actions of Japanese aggression during WWII while being silent on the horrors perpetrated at the hands of the Japanese military. Ultimately, however, both museums represent the conflicted Japanese perspective on the war itself. The issue of WWII education including the full story of the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan is one of balancing educating the nation’s youth about the war without inflicting the burden of the sins of the past on them. it.

While education may bring the shrine closer to removing the fourteen names and enshrining them elsewhere, there is no guarantee. The soldiers, politicians, and commanders each served Japan, each served under the emperor meeting the requirements for enshrinement within Yasukuni. For Japan to remove the fourteen names without the head priest of Yasukuni’s permission would go against their constitution which includes the separation of church and state. With the controversies getting in the way of international relationships with other nations, the Japanese are between a rock and a hard place without the ability to interfere with the shrine’s operation. The Yasukuni Shrine remains a formidable obstacle to a potential Japanese reconciliation with South Korea, despite the looming threat of China’s expansionism, with the path forward unclear.

If the fourteen names are poisoning the shrine’s reputation, is it worth keeping them within the main shrine? Would returning the names to local shrines fix the problem? This was the assumed status of the fourteen until they were deemed “worthy of enshrinement” into Yasukuni alongside their fellow servicemen. Prior to the enshrinement of these fourteen names, foreign dignitaries, including the United States, would visit the site. Importantly, the shrine still hosts festivals for the Japanese people while serving as a religious center.

Education surrounding Japan’s actions in WWII could be the beginning of change. The modern Japanese aren’t responsible for the actions of their ancestors, though they are responsible for teaching the lessons learned from the past. The glossing over of the horrors of war as seen at Yushukan serves to sanitize Japan’s actions during WWII. Yushukan and Yasukuni have the potential to be excellent teachers of the realities of war. I feel the dead deserve their rest, and the fourteen names should be displayed, but contextualized with the full history. These fourteen names served the emperor and thus should be able to rest on the grounds of Yasukuni, however they served dishonorably and should remain separate from those that served with honor. Barring government officials from thanking the dead for their sacrifices is a disservice to those who served honorably. Hopefully, education surrounding the actions of the fourteen can set Japan on the path of healing as Yasukuni remains an important site in the rich history of the nation.

(edited by Brad Poss and Laura Bailey)

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