That Yasukuni is a political rather than a religious issue is all too apparent from the top news in today’s Japan Times where the leading headline screams….
Abe will not visit Yasukuni shrine on Aug 15
POLITICS AUG. 02, 2013 – 06:45AM JST ( 15 )
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not visit a controversial shrine to war dead on the anniversary of his country’s surrender in World War II, AFP sources and a report said Thursday.
The premier will stay away on August 15 from the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, two government sources close to Abe told AFP.
The decision to stay away from the shrine, also reported by Kyodo news agency, could be seen as part of efforts to avoid further tensions with countries such as China and South Korea, which were victims of Japan’s pre-war and wartime aggression.
Nationalists have made Yasukuni into a political football (photo AFP)
The shrine honors some 2.5 million citizens who died in World War II and other conflicts, including 14 top war criminals.
Visits to Yasukuni by Japanese leaders spark anger in neighboring nations, who say the country has failed to atone for its brutalities in the first half of the 20th century, including the 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.
Abe, a nationalist, has defended the right of leaders to visit the shrine.
“I think it’s quite natural for a Japanese leader to offer prayer for those who sacrificed their lives for their country, and I think this is no different from what other world leaders do,” he told Foreign Affairs magazine earlier this year.
Abe has stayed away from the shrine since taking office in December for a second term, but a growing number of his ministers have visited the site.
The long-simmering issue made international headlines in April when nearly 170 Japanese lawmakers made a pilgrimage there to mark a spring festival, angering Beijing and Seoul and sparking diplomatic protests.
Among those honored at the site in the heart of Tokyo is General Hideki Tojo, the prime minister who authorised the attack on Pearl Harbor which drew the US into the war.
Even at home there is significant opposition to Yasukuni, including among some relatives of those honored there who say it glorifies war and the darker chapters in Japan’s history.
Almost anthing can be used by nationalists for their dubious ends
“Nationalists have made Yasukuni into a political football”, says the caption… but it has always been one. But talking with a Japanese person can clear up this confusion fast. Recently I’ve started to understand that the news media is uninformed about all religious issues and not just complex ones related to Japan.