62 lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine

Tuesday 22nd April, 10:55 AM JST

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14 Comments

sarcasm123 at 11:34 AM JST - 22nd April

Will China - after using the "it's an internal business" line as an answer to the international complains about Tibet - have the guts to complain about this?
pathat at 12:26 PM JST - 22nd April

Did they also mosey on over to the Yushukan Museum for a history lesson? It must be comforting for the 2 million+ souls at Yasukuni who died in the 1930s and `40s to know that they did nothing wrong, and perished in a Greater East Asia War that they were forced into by an ABCD encirclement, while they were trying to free the rest of Asia from Western imperialism.

And that nasty United States of America and its dirty leaders, allowing Pearl Harbor to happen in order to get the public out of its isolationist bent, and granting Roosevelt a golden opportunity to get the economy going once and for all.

Yasukuni Shrine and the Yushukan Museum. Quite a pair.
Beelzebub at 12:34 PM JST - 22nd April

Hey, good timing. The Chinese are so busy rampaging against the Mayor of Paris, Carrefours and CNN that they're too distracted to notice.
keech2 at 12:35 PM JST - 22nd April

Now, a couple of weeks ago, the mayor of Hakusan in Ishikawa Prefecture had to pay a fine, because he visited a shrine. The article was a little vague, but it seems that the major sticking point was that he used an official government vehicle to go to the shrine. According to the ruling, he violated constitutional law on the separation of church and state. What I'm wondering is whether or not these gentleman used private or government vehicles. And, if they did use government vehicles, did they also violate the Constitution?
fireant at 12:58 PM JST - 22nd April

Keech2,

There you go again, using western logic. I saw that when he was prime minister, Koizumi walked to the shrine. (Much to the chagrin of his ministers, who had to walk, too.) Personally, I think attending this particular shrine on the government's dime is unconstitutional but that's just me thinking like a foreigner again. Of course Presidents of the US go to church all the time - mostly Christian; in fact, this election seems to be the 'tell us your religion' election. Pity, because they really should be separate - many Americans are not Christians - and many Japanese may not approve of their elected officials going to Yasukuni.
keech2 at 03:13 PM JST - 22nd April

fireant,

I remember the whole Koizumi situation when he was PM. I was talking about the present situation with some people here(I live in Ishikawa.) We all were wondering what would happen with a Yasukuni visit, now that there is such firm and recent precedent. It will be interesting to see if anyone files a lawsuit again.

BTW, I'm a firm believer in keeping the wall of separation high, as high as possible.
nigelboy at 03:49 PM JST - 22nd April

"I remember the whole Koizumi situation when he was PM. I was talking about the present situation with some people here(I live in Ishikawa.) We all were wondering what would happen with a Yasukuni visit, now that there is such firm and recent precedent. It will be interesting to see if anyone files a lawsuit again.

BTW, I'm a firm believer in keeping the wall of separation high, as high as possible."

These left wingers are only interested filing a lawsuit when Prime Ministers go to Yasukuni Jinjya. If a bunch of lawmakers go to Yasukuni, they won't file. If a Prime Minister goes to Ise Jingu (another Shinto shrine) they won't file. But if a Prime Minister goes to Yasukuni, they'll file using the constitutionality of separation of church and state.
Alphaape at 06:53 PM JST - 22nd April

I say good on them. Like it or not, you must learn about the good things about your history as well as the bad things. By pretending that they did not happen will not make it go away, only just gives the opportunities for the mistakes of the past to be brought up again. We still have people in the US that regularly celebrate Confederate War dead Rebel soldiers. Even in some states, the birthday of Robert E. Lee is a state holiday (state workers in some states are given the chance to take that day off or Martin Luther King Day off).

So the fact that the lawmakers went there, at least they are honoring those who were before. I am not saying that what they believed they went to war for was right, but that they made the sacrifice. Yes some did do some bad things, but they were just products of their time.
Triple888 at 09:30 PM JST - 22nd April

Hey, good timing. The Chinese are so busy rampaging against the Mayor of >Paris, Carrefours and CNN that they're too distracted to notice.

Chinese people are good multitaskers - with 1.3 billion population absolutely nothing escapes the grasps of the Chinese.
tclh at 09:42 PM JST - 22nd April

If Tibetan people do not oppopse chinese leaders(or anyone for that matter) to visit Mao memorial hall,chinese people should also leave Japanese leaders alone to visit Yasukuni anytime they like.
OssanULTRA at 12:02 AM JST - 23rd April

I sincerely doubt China will make any noises about this, except perhaps a small insignificant token squeak, if at all. Main reason- now that they've scared away all the Western visitors to the Olympics, they need the Japanese visitors to come and spend their money.
benwang at 12:04 AM JST - 23rd April

tclh, it was not just the chinese who complained about it, but also many other countries complained about it too. don't just point fingers to the chinese, you made it sounded like it was just the chinese's issue. BTW, where is Mao memorial hall?
Simon_Foston at 12:06 AM JST - 23rd April

I don't think there will be any fuss about this either. Large groups of right-wing lawmakers trooping off to Yasukuni is a fairly regular occurrence and I don't remember the Chinese or the Koreans ever complaining about it.
tclh at 05:21 AM JST - 23rd April

correct name Mao's mausoleum(chaiman Mao Zedong memorial hall) is at south side of Tiananmen square.If you are chinese and you don't khow where this is, be careful with chinese police.