Today marks the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II. The Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi has taken this opportunity to attend ceremonies at the Yasukini Shrine, which has prompted the predictable responses from South Korea and China.
More interestingly, it was the first time in 21 years since Yasuhiro Nakasone attended the ceremonies on 15th of August that a Japanese prime minister attended the Yasukuni Shrine in this context.
Here are some thoughts on this day.
1) Japan lost World War II. Nobody is even disputing this historic fact. It's not even something Mr. Koizumi is disputing. In fact he says he goes there to pray for continued peace. So it seeems rather petty to not let the Prime Minister of Japan honour the war dead and pray for peace on the dday the war ended. Sometimes what a person says should be taken for face value. It's not as if people are physically getting harmed by his visit. It's only hurting the puffed up pride of these other countries.
2) It doesn't really seem remotely likely that Japan will go on the war path so likening the Prime Minsterial visit to a prelude to war as the South koreans are doing, is over-reacting. There does seem to be a lot of political mileage to be made in South Korea and China on these issues. Both the Communists in China and the current South Korean government have significant domestic problems on hand, so it always helps to demonise the Japanese... except they have significant economic ties with Japan and Japan hasn't been a problem for 61 years. So what do they do? They complain about 62 years ago. They really should put their energy into looking after their own backyards.
3) Most people in Japan are *over* it. Not only are they over World War II, they're over the post-war period. 61 years is enough time for the events to be seen as history. They're probably even *over* this debate.
The young just don't get what the paranoia is about.
Kuroki, 20: "It is pointless to talk about the past again and again. So I think Koizumi visiting Yasukuni is OK. But then if I put myself in the position of the Chinese or Koreans, it's not so easy to say what I just said. It's a complicated issue."These are not nationalists or war-mongers. They're just honest reactions by young people in Japan. They don't understand what the problematic is in the first place. And it is no bloody wonder they don't understand, because the issue is borne out of the rhetoric-fuelled imagination of paranoid Chinese and Korean politicians .
Hideyuki 21: "I can't understand what his intention was in going to Yasukuni. I want him to think about the country and the situation it is in. It is now certain that our relationship with Korea and China will only get worse. When he visited the shrine, there was inconsistency to his action. He says that he went there as an individual, so he paid out of his pocket. But when he signed his name, he wrote Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi. He was also formally dressed and went inside where ordinary citizens are not allowed to go."
Ryo, 18: "I am interested in this issue, but do not know enough about it yet. I've got some catching up to do. I personally think that his visit was OK. The Japan of today only exists because of those people of the past, including the Class A war criminals. I think this applies to all other nations. I think it's good to pay one's respects and pray for those who sacrificed their lives for the nation. I cannot understand why he gets criticized so much. Japan is an independent nation and has the right to handle its internal affairs. So we shouldn't be affected by what other countries say on the matter."
Kana 18: "I think it's good that Koizumi visited the shrine. I do not have a strong reason to support this, other than the fact that those people who sacrificed their lives are enshrined there."
The notion that China has, of perpetually persuing Japan over WWII is inadequate to diplomacy. Similarly, the posturing of South Korea is probably a reflection of the low national self-esteem. This fueling of the fire with rhetoric that they do is clearly part of the problem, if not the problem itself.
4) There are always ignorant idiots in the gallery throwing peanuts. Alexander Downer had this to say:
What a putz.ALEXANDER Downer today openly criticised the Japanese prime minister for visiting a controversial World War II shrine because among those honoured at the site was a "class A" war criminal.
In tougher comments than those made in Japan two weeks ago, the Australian Foreign Minister said Junichiro Koizumi's pilgrimage to the shrine made people feel the Japanese were not showing respect to the dead from other nations.
"From Australia's point of view we understand the prime minister of Japan wanting to show respect to Japanese soldiers killed in the second world war, whatever the rights and wrongs of the second world war and we (Australia) have very strong views about that history," he said during a photo-opportunity with the South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon.
"Our concern has been the presence of the remains of Class A war criminals also in the Yasakuni shrine and I said to the Japanese prime minister - that's what makes people around the region and around the world feel uncomfortable, not the paying of respect to soldiers who died in the second world war but the fact that included in the shrine are the remains of several Class A war criminals."
"He (Koizumi) told me, he understood that point of view but that in Japan it wasn't possible to separate souls in a way we might understand in our own culture.
"Of course what makes us uncomfortable about this issue, is the presence of the Class A war criminals."
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon expressed anger and dismay at the visit which he said was especially disturbing because it happened on South Korean independence day.
He said Korea hoped future leaders of Japan would stop visiting the shrine.
South Korean people were "frustrated and angry" at the visit and so were other East Asian nations including China, he said.
It's easy for Mr. Downer to ride on the coat-tails of a South Korean foreign minister and chime in with his little remark. If it were true that Mr. Koizumi's visit was offensive to the other nations, then it is conceivable to argue that Mr. Howard's visits to the Australian War Memorial are offensive to Japan and Germany. It's amazing that he wants to buy into this, let alone argue such a manifestly stupid line. I guess he's not exactly known for his scintillating intellect.
The other laughable line in there is that today is South Korea's independence day. While that may be true, the said independence only happened as a result of the end of World War II, so maybe Mr. Ban Ki-Moon should read his history books a little more closely, and get a wider perspective on the world. I'm pretty sure the Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi is not interested in the significance of this date to the Koreans over the significance of the date to the Japanese.
Any suggestion like Mr. Ban's that Mr. Koizumi should do so is absurd.
61 years - Think about that for a moment.
In that time Japan has not waged any wars. It has barely sent some peacekeepers to Iraq to build infrastructure after the recent US invasion. That's it on their ledger, and it does not look like they'll do anything resembling an invasionof China. They've drawn a bitter lesson from WWII and stuck to it.
Meanwhile China's had many a military conflict under the Communists, with the Korean War, Tibet, India and Vietnam. They haven't exactly been Peaceful Percy. You sort of wonder who it is that needs to face up squarely with their history of aggression.
UPDATE:
Here's what Junicihro Koizumi had to say for himself:
At a separate ceremony to remember the war dead, Mr Koizumi expressed deep remorse and condolences for the “considerable damage and pain” caused by Japan to its Asian neighbours. But he stubbornly defended his decision to visit the shrine on the most sensitive and controversial of all days — the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in 1945.So I wonder on what grounds you could say he had an ulterior Nationalist agenda, when it seems he had a deeply personal reason to be there because it marked the end of the WWII. A lot of people will think that is unsatisfactory as an explanation but isn't that the nature of politics where everybody finds something to gripe about?
“People say, ‘Don’t do anything that annoys China or South Korea, so Asian diplomacy will be in good shape’,” Mr Koizumi said after his early-morning visit. “But I don’t think that’s the case. If Bush of the United States tells me not to go, would I stop? No, I would still go even then. But President Bush would not say anything so immature. I have visited the shrine in the past to pray for those who had to sacrifice themselves. The visit is not dedicated to the Class-A war criminals. I am not going to the shrine in order to encourage Shinto or to glorify and justify Japan’s past militarism.”
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