Visit to Japanese war shrine irritates U.S

TOKYO

On the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama’s one-day state visit to Japan on Wednesday, more than 100 Japanese members of parliament, including two cabinet ministers, had paid their respects at a highly controversial shrine to the dead, among the deceased war criminals executed for their role in World War II.

Besuited cabinet ministers have been pictured at the Yasukuni Shrine ahead of Obama’s weeklong Asian tour, which also takes in South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia. The shrine, with wide black-tiled eaves and a prominent white curtain in front adorned with gold chrysanthemums - the symbol of Japan's imperial family - is in a downtown Tokyo park decorated with artifacts of war history, traditional ceremony and religious architecture, among which white robed monks scurry and sit. A plaque on a wall is inscribed with the thoughts of a suicide bomber prior to his death.

Such visits outrage China and South Korea and increasingly irritate the U.S., which is concerned that disputes stemming from the history of WWII are straining Japan’s relations with South Korea, a treaty ally, and China with which it wishes to maintain cordial relations. China sees such visits as demonstrating a lack of remorse for Japan's invasion and occupation during the war. 

Washington professed itself be “disappointed” after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the shrine in late December, an action that shocked many Japanese, despite the mild phrasing. It was the first time the U.S. had directly criticized such visits. Abe made the trip against the expressed advice of U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden.

The prime minister himself stayed away from the shrine this time, but he did send a ceremonial offering of a memorial tree. Most of the visitors were members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) or the conservative Japan Restoration Party. Abe’s official visit to the shrine in late December, on the first anniversary of his election, had set off a crescendo of complaints from Beijing and Seoul.

Indeed, the visit had resembled the Nixon “shock” of thirty years ago when the then U.S. president informed Tokyo only minutes before announcing his trip to China. In December's instance, Abe informed his closest associates only as he was in the limousine en-route. Shigeru Ishida, secretary-general of the LDP, learned of it only when a reporter asked for a comment.

The premier clearly didn’t want to be talked out of going.

The Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto - the indigenous faith of the Japanese people - shrine founded in the late 19th century to honor the approximate 2.5 million Japanese who died in various wars. That part is not controversial. But in 1978 the shrine’s priests secretly inducted fourteen “Class-A” war criminals, including wartime leader Hideki Tojo, and about 1000 “Class B and C” criminals.

Unlike the famous Nuremberg trials, The International Tribunal for the Far East, better known as the Tokyo Trials, distinguished between classes of criminality. Those convicted of Class-A crimes were accused of instigating and waging a war of aggression. The others of more conventional war crimes such as killing civilians or abusing prisoners.

When the Emperor Hirohito - Japan's longest-reigning emperor who died in 1989 - learned of the priests’ actions, he stopped visiting the shrine. His son, the Emperor Akihito, has never visited.

Conservative Japanese politicians maintain that they are merely paying respects to the war dead, just as other countries do. 

“We believe it is only a matter of course to pray for people who fought and sacrificed their lives for the sake of one’s country,” said the government’s spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, following the latest visit.

However, the shrine is more than just a place to grieve; it serves a propaganda function as well. The attached Yushukun war museum promotes an extreme nationalistic take on WWII, in which Japan's motives are depicted as being totally defensive and its actions designed to rid Asia of Western colonialism.

Chinese and South Korean reaction to the latest visits were fairly muted, and the U.S. did not condemn them, although Obama might have something to say about it, if only obliquely, at the conclusion of his visit. The Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed Abe was “on the wrong side of history” by sending a memorial tree.

It should be noted that the Chinese tend to be more tolerant of ordinary MPs and low-ranking cabinet ministers paying pilgrimage to the shrine. It also matters how they sign their name in the guest book. The two ministers who visited during this spring’s annual festival signed their names as private citizens not using their government position.

What really riles the Chinese, and to a degree the Koreans, is when the prime minister himself visits the shrine, especially in his official capacity. Beijing is particularly suspicious of Abe and his motives since he is a well-known conservative nationalist who would, if he had his way, eliminate the war-renouncing article in Japan’s American-written constitution. A year ago the LDP, which Abe heads, unveiled a list of suggested changes to the constitution, including changing or repealing the famous Article 9 in which Japan renounces war as a sovereign right.

Indeed, the Yasukuni visit is deeply personal with Abe. His beloved grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi could have become the 15th war criminal honored at the Yasukuni. He served as Minister of Munitions in the wartime government and was, for a while, detained by the American occupiers though never put on trial. He went on to become the prime minister who negotiated the security treaty with the U.S.

The last time that the Yasukuni visits roiled relations in Northeast Asia was during the long (by Japanese standards) administration of Junichiro Koizumi (2000-2005). Koizumi made a point of visiting the shrine each August at the anniversary of Japan’s surrender.

Ironically, it was Abe himself during his short first administration (2006-2007) who repaired relations by declining to visit the shrine. All five of his successors from both the LDP and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan also refrained from making the pilgrimage. But Abe always maintained that he “regretted” not making the visit.

During his year and a half in office, Abe has visited some 30 countries, Turkey twice. He has become the most traveled Japanese leader in recent memory. However, there are two important countries that he has not yet visited: China and South Korea.

Since Abe’s public polling ratings still hover around 60 percent approval, he seems set for a long stay as prime minister, so it would appear that these strained relations will continue for quite a while. 

There probably isn’t much that Obama in this trip can do about it.

englishnews@aa.com.tr