54 lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine for annual autumn festival

Tuesday 20th October, 12:49 PM JST

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realist at 05:05 PM JST - 20th October

The old dinosaurs of the defeated and disgraced on a visit to the Shrine of Hatered in Kudanshita. They have obviously not learned anything from their wipeout in August. Here they are again, visiting the Hate Shrine to pay homage to the mass murderers enshrined there. Make no mistake about it - they couldnt give a toss about the ordinary japanese people who lost their lives as a result of the actions of Fascist Japanese past leaders. They went to the Shrine of Hatred just to pay homage to their "heroes" - the Class A evil War Criminals "enshrined" there. They might think they are "enshrined" there - but the rest of us know where they really are right now.

Thank God for a change of government in Japan, leaving tjese relics of the past behind! Way to go, Hatoyama San/DPJ!!
Junnama at 05:12 PM JST - 20th October

The LDP itself may be "enshrined" at Yasukuni soon if these keeps up...
NeoJamal at 05:20 PM JST - 20th October

The old dinosaurs of the defeated and disgraced on a visit to the Shrine of Hatered in Kudanshita. They have obviously not learned anything from their wipeout in August. Here they are again, visiting the Hate Shrine to pay homage to the mass murderers enshrined there. Make no mistake about it - they couldnt give a toss about the ordinary japanese people who lost their lives as a result of the actions of Fascist Japanese past leaders. They went to the Shrine of Hatred just to pay homage to their "heroes" - the Class A evil War Criminals "enshrined" there. They might think they are "enshrined" there - but the rest of us know where they really are right now.

Well they did support the Iraq War so I guess you have a valid point
goldbaker88 at 06:04 PM JST - 20th October

I had a great time reading around your post as I read it extensively. I am looking forward to hearing more from you.
NihonRyu at 06:50 PM JST - 20th October

We Japanese need to grow a pair and finally tell the Chinese, Koreans, etc. that although there were some war criminals enshrined there 99.99% are the souls of brave young men who lost their lives for what they believed to be defending their homeland. Perhaps the war effort was misguided by those class A criminals but so many young men sacraficed their lives for what they thought was the collective good of Japan. This sacrafice needs to be respected and should not be used as a political tool every time a Japaense PM, etc. visits and pays their respect. Many Japanese have close relatives that have made the ultimate sacrafice during the war, who is to say they cannot be respected accordingly? I cannot fathom the hostility by some on what Yasukuni is. People especially those who live today in Vietnam will say the U.S. war effort there was misguided and subjected many Vietnamese citizens to brutality, rape, etc.. However should we condemn the visit of U.S heads of state to the vietnam memorial? That is ridiculous. Many will say vietnam was the wrong war and the U.S. was the aggressor. Does that mean Americans cannot respect the young men and women that lost their lives courageously in an ultimately misguided politcal war led by a few?

I hope more Japanese on this forum respond in kind as this is our beloved country and shouldn't feel scared of what we really feel about things and post our thoughts inlcluding paying respects to our dead relatives enshrined there.

History is always written from the perspective of those that win wars. Japan certainly committed many sins during and leading up to the war that they should always reflect on. However, prior to WW2 most of Asia was under Western Colonial control or puppet states. Japan was one of the first non Western nation to modernize and pose a challenge to the Western nations. Let's not forget that after the war Asians as a whole freed themselves from their Western occupation. I believe there is some truth that Japan was influencial in winning Asias freedom from Western powers either intentionally or unintentionally.
gogogo at 07:09 PM JST - 20th October

54 lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine for annual autumn festival

54 lawmakers have nothing better to do than be ignorant.
gogogo at 07:12 PM JST - 20th October

NihonRyu: You need to look carefully at international ideas and viewpoints and not look inward. Just because you don't think it is offensive doesn't mean it isn't.
JpMoonkey at 10:09 PM JST - 20th October

WTF..whats the reason??
Simon_Foston at 11:32 PM JST - 20th October

Let's not forget that after the war Asians as a whole freed themselves from their Western occupation. I believe there is some truth that Japan was influencial in winning Asias freedom from Western powers either intentionally or unintentionally.

I'm sure those lawmakers visiting the shrine would like to think so as well, but correct me if I'm mistaken, wasn't the Japanese plan to replace western colonial rule with Japanese colonial rule, which appears to have been a whole lot worse?
Seiharinokaze at 04:40 PM JST - 21st October

Simon_Foston,

Japan was not a hero but an awkward late comer who tried to follow the West and blundered. And she was charged for what she did. If so how could the West hold on to what they obtained by doing almost similar things as Japan?

I agree, however, with your first post on this thread. Even Tanigaki san visited the shrine in spite of his former remarks that he would desist if he became prime minister. Yet he is LDP leader now and Protestant as well. Perhaps he has to reshape conservatism by first making a bid for them.
Simon_Foston at 10:21 PM JST - 23rd October

Japan was not a hero but an awkward late comer who tried to follow the West and blundered.

That's the point I was making. If Japan was just trying to follow the example of the western colonial powers, Japanese nationalists don't have very good grounds for saying they helped to liberate Asia.

I believe there is some truth that Japan was influencial in winning Asias freedom from Western powers either intentionally or unintentionally.

I agree, but I'd take the "intentionally" out of that statement.
Seiharinokaze at 11:05 PM JST - 23rd October

And so the Westerners lost grounds for continuing to have Asia unliberated too by condemning their stupid follower either intentionally or unintentionally. That may be part of what the shrine is telling tacitly abhorrent to the whole world. A site of present day Onryo shinko.
Simon_Foston at 08:41 AM JST - 24th October

The western powers have a lot of very shameful history to reflect upon, but criticizing them does not absolve Japan of any blame that it has, and "we were only trying to do what Britain and France had done" is a very poor excuse. Aggressive expansion, slave labour camps, massacres of native populations and other such atrocities were evil and wrong when perpetrated by western nations, and no less evil and wrong when perpetrated by anyone else. However, the rightist politicians regularly visiting Yasukuni and the curators of the Yushukan museum would rather just forget that.
Seiharinokaze at 01:39 PM JST - 24th October

Probably the irony or fury of the shrine is that the perpetrators of aggressive expansion and other atrocities by Japan were condemned while those by the West were not even in the contemporary sense, though you acknowledge that they were no less evil and wrong. Visiting the graves and memorials of any perpetrators might be expected to be criticized ideally. Anyway unquiet souls seem to rest at the shrine. Better stay away.
amerijap at 08:30 AM JST - 26th October

New Party Daichi leader Muneo Suzuki

Isn't he the guy who is being on trial for the graft??