Los siete magníficos

The sanctuary of Yasukuni (靖国神社 yasukuni jinja or the temple of the country alleviated , old C-W communication: 靖國神社) is a sanctuary shintō located at Chiyoda-ku, Tōkyō, with the Japan. It was built in 1869 to pay homage to the Japanese “having given their life in the name of the emperor of Japan”. The hearts of more than two million died Japanese soldiers of 1868 with 1951 are déifiées there. Regarded as one of the symbols of the last colonialist of Japan and the nationalists, it is famous to be the subject of polemics in Asia (China, South Korea and in Japan even) following the visits of Japanese politicians.

The sanctuary also manages a museum, Yūshūkan (遊就館), which presents historical objects and explanatory panels recalling the military history of Japan. The tone is criticized there as being nationalist and tendentiously revisionist, the Massacre of Nankin is minimized there, and the Japanese expansion in Asia and in the Pacific is presented like a will of constitution of a Sphère of Co-prosperity of large Eastern Asia against the Western imperialism. One there glorifie also the squadrons Tokkōtai.

History

The sanctuary, which was called in the beginning Tōkyō Shōkonsha (東京招魂社) was built in 1869 to celebrate the memory of the dead soldiers for the emperor, at the time of the Civil war of Boshin. At this time were there only 3.500 victims of this war. One will add to it later people died at the time of internal conflicts like the clashes with the clans of Satsuma and Saga, starting from 1853, date of arrival of the black vessels of Perry in Japan. In 1879, the sanctuary takes the name of sanctuary of Yasukuni.

After the Second world war, and the abolition of the Koshitsu Shintô by the occupying forces, the sanctuary became religious association, independent of the State. It is an autonomous sanctuary which does not form part of the association of the sanctuaries Shintō of Japan.

Today, Yasukuni venerates the hearts of 2  466  532 died for the emperors at the time of conflicts military, including some Taiwanese or Korean S which had Japanese nationality at the time of their death following the annexation by Japan of these countries. These deaths relate to mainly the Second world war (2  133  915 people), then the war Russo-Japanese woman (191  250 people). They are primarily soldiers, but one finds there also civilians or even children like 57  000 women.

The sanctuary, that much shows of glorifier openly the era colonialist of Japan in particular by the means of its museum, made much speak about him by the addition in October 1978 with the list of the “déifiées” people, several condemned at the time of the lawsuit of Tōkyō, in particular of the war criminals of class has, as “martyrs of Shōwa”, of which the Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō (東条英機) or the Head of State major of the Army Yoshijiro Umezu (梅津美治郎). Among these fourteen condemned, seven besides were condemned to died and were carried out. The temple, of which the " deliver âmes" contained already the names of 1.068 people condemned by the allies for war crimes, will become discussed as from years 70, following these additions, which were the decision of Nagayoshi Matsudaira, person in charge of the temple and wire of Yoshitami Matsudaira, Minister for the imperial House after the war of Large Eastern Asia.

Fact less known, there is also a certain number of civilians, for example the known young girls of Okinawa under the name of Escadron Himeyuri, who were enlisted as nurses and were sent to the face during the Bataille of Okinawa in 1945. There are also the 1  500 victims of the torpedoing of the ship Tsushima-maru in 1944 by an American submarine, or of the schoolboys died at the time of attacks whereas they took part in the effort of war while working in factories. Historical characters like Sakamoto Ryōma, Yoshida Shōin or Takasugi Shinsaku are there also.

The decision to honor the heart with a death with Yasukuni is made by the persons in charge of the sanctuary, without consultation nor prior approval of the family.

Yasukuni and imperial court

The emperor Shōwa (昭和天皇) or Hirohito emperor, which had visited several times the temple after the war, abstained from doing it after 1977. According to its close relations, he would have been opposed to the addition condemned lawsuits of Tōkyō in 1978. This assumption was confirmed by the in July 2006 publication of the newspaper of the adviser of Hirohito, Tomohiko Tomita, which quotes Hirohito saying about the addition of 1978: “For this reason, since, I do not go there more in pilgrimage; here is my feeling.” He was opposed in particular to the transfer of Yosuke Matsuoka and Toshio Shiratori, personalities which worked for alliance with the countries of the Axis.

About the decision of 1978 of Nagayoshi Matsudaira to honor the criminals with class has in Yasukuni, it comments, according to Tomita: " Matsudaira father was due much to peace, but the son was unaware of the spirit of the père." The partisans of Yasukuni, who received a hard disillusion there, however asserted that the sentence did not slice clearly if the emperor disapproved the addition of the two personalities because of their statute of war criminal or because of his personal antipathy towards them. The Emperor could not however express himself openly on the problem, under the terms of the constitution of 1946 which prohibits to him to be expressed on a political subject, also it is difficult to know his opinion with certainty a posteriori.

For the journalist Masanori Yamaguchi, who analyzed the Tomita memo in the light of the declarations of Hirohito at the time of his press conference of 1975, the “opaque and evasive” attitude of the emperor on his responsibility with regard to the war and the fact that he declared that the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima “could not be prevented”, shows that it feared that the establishment of the criminals to the sanctuary can start again the question of its personal liabilities concerning the crimes of the mode shôwa ( Yasukuni and has week that will live in infamy , http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20060820pb.html)

Problem of the official visits with Yasukuni

The presence with Yasukuni of the names of the fourteen war criminals returns each visit of a Prime Minister discussed. In particular, the Chinese and Korean governments see such visits like an affront. Although the Prime Ministers having visited the sanctuary affirmed to have done it with personal capacity, the attitude of Koizumi in particular on this subject is regarded as ambiguous. Several legal decisions in addition declared the official visits unconstitutional (those of Hashimoto like those of Koizumi), the Prime Minister not having in theory the right to carry out acts in religious matter apart from the personal framework. Koizumi had avoided the date birthday of the end of the war to spare the anger of its neighbors, but finally held its promise of countryside to visit Yasukuni on August 15th in the last year of its mandate, in 2006, causing an outcry once again.

The problem of the visits to the Yasukuni temple is not at present solved and each visit causes reactions plus sharp in the adjoining countries of Japan. Although the official character or not of the visits was the subject of debates in the Japanese press since the end of the Années 1970 and that several lawsuits took place to solve the question, the problem really drew the attention with the international level only starting from 2001, with the first visit of Koizumi.

Reactions in Japan and debate

The surveys of several Japanese daily newspapers show that a majority of the Japanese population is against the visits with Yasukuni. The press as for it worries about the diplomatic consequences in the long term. Several politicians proposed various solutions like the idea to build a new war memorial more the " neutre" , to remove the religious character of the homage to died of war, to separate the problematic names. The temple, supported by the outer wing of the Japanese political community, remains however not very open to these ideas of compromise.

Many honoured victims' families with Yasukuni wish to see their withdrawn names of the sanctuary, opposed to the idea for personal reasons, ideological and probably shocked not to be consulted. Thus nine people brought a lawsuit with the sanctuary in August 2006, asking for the withdrawal of the " âmes" members of their families honoured against their liking. Similar lawsuits already took place, but generally saw the déboutées families their requests.

Official visits by Prime Ministers

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • Official site of the sanctuary Yasukuni
  • Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs: texts on several discussed subjects of the Post-war period
  • Diaporama and photographs of the sanctuary Yasukuni Jinja at the time from the 60 {{E}} birthday of the rendering of Japan (2005)

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